


While Your Lips Are Still Red

by BourbonOnTheRocks



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Allusion to Mad Men because Beth reminds me so much of Betty Draper sometimes, And obviously because Christina, Angst, Annoying Idiots, At Least I'm Trying, Awkward Flirting, Awkward Romance, Bridget Jones's Diary References, Crazy Ex Girlfriend References, Dean doesn't deserve Beth, Definitely A Lot Of Sex, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fingering, First Kiss, Hand Jobs, Harry Potter References, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry, Idiots who pretend they're not madly attracted to each other while their chemistry is just insane, Kissing, Mentions of past Dean/Beth, Minor Violence, Orgasm Denial, Power (Fore)Play, Power Struggle, Recreational Drug Use, Rio (Good Girls) Being an Asshole, Sex, UST, but not like that, dubious running cinematic metaphor, masturbation mention, plot what plot?, steam pressure getting out of control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2020-11-15 08:24:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 45,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20863196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BourbonOnTheRocks/pseuds/BourbonOnTheRocks
Summary: Rio needs a cover girlfriend. And things tend to get out of control... Set somewhere before S2E04.





	1. Running For The Oscar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beth and Rio pretend to kiss and end up kissing for real. That's it. Don't judge me, I know it's barely a plot, but I've been obsessed with this idea for so long that I had to get it out of my system! 🙈🙈🙈
> 
> Rating's probably T but I put an M as a security, because some of it is pretty graphic.

Beth was unpacking groceries in the kitchen and refilling her cereal cupboards, carefully sorting the boxes by increasing height when she heard the unmistakable noise of someone clearing his throat behind her, and she jumped with the surprise, immediately turning around. Facing the kitchen counter, Rio was watching her with an ironic smirk. She instantly got invaded by the mix of fear and thrill she experienced whenever she was around him, always unable to tell if he was there to smash things around, threaten her with a gun, or compliment her about her complexion.

"You've got to stop doing this!" she complained, briefly closing her eyes before rolling them at the skies in her irritation.

But he ignored her annoyance as he casually replied, "You free tomorrow night?"

She gave him a blank look, expecting anything but that, "Why?"

"Imma need you for a cover."

She sighed. She hated the way he would always give her information word after word so she had to ask at least ten questions to be able to form a coherent sentence about what she was supposed to do.

"What kind of cover?"

"Ain't important. I'll pick you up at 9, works for you?"

She snorted, "I thought you'd never ask! Do I have a choice anyway?" she ironically threw back at him.

"Nah, but I like when you think you got one. It's cute," he chuckled.

God, she was going to rip-off his head someday!

He turned around, ready to leave, when he added, "One more thing, yeah?"

"What?" she angrily asked.

"The meetin's in a club. Be sure you be wearin' somethin'... appropriate," he told her as his glance was appreciatively following the lines of her body, although they were partially hidden under the amorphous and pretty ugly dress she had randomly picked-up in a hurry a few hours before, as she'd suddenly remembered she had to go out for groceries.

She could read his judgment about her sense of style on his face and she waved her head with irritation, "What kind of club?"

"Oh, no worry, a pretty trashy one, so don't put on the fancy show. Ain't sure there was a chance you do that anyway," he added with a slight snort, raising his eyebrows as his eyes were taking in her look one more time.

She gave him an exasperated sigh as he left.

She spent an unreasonable amount of time the next day trying to pick up the best outfit, but the more she was giving it thoughts, the more she got puzzled, trying to figure what would be appropriate for a 'trashy club'. Did that mean that she would be surrounded by people half her age with slutty outfits? Cause she'd definitely not go wearing a tank top and a mini-short, besides she wasn't even sure her closet could provide such attire. It took her hours to finally settle on an acceptably short blue-green dress, a pretty simple one, the kind she could wear outside on summer days without feeling like she was on carnival, but tight enough to pass off as sexy on a night out.

But then there was the makeup headache, and she briefly wondered if she should do something with her hair before she thought she was freaking out way too much for a business meeting.

As Rio picked her up, at precisely 9:00pm, she realized he was wearing his usual black casual outfit, and his apparent lack of any specific dressing effort appalled her, before it made her question her own clothing choice. Maybe that was too much? 

He gave her an appreciative look, clicking his tongue before he let out, "Al'ight, let's go."

"How do I look?" she asked, still unsure that she would fit.

"Better than yesterday," he teased with a side look, and he waved his head towards the car, silently ordering her to climb in.

She'd thought he would give her some more clues about what he expected from her along the drive but he kept silent, and as they were heading to a parking lot, she finally asked, "Are you going to tell me what kind of cover I'm supposed to be?"

"Ain't no worry 'bout that, ma, I'll give you the deets when we're inside," he hissed between his teeth.

To her relief, it wasn't a party club for late teenagers, but mostly a shady place. The kind of place that screamed that it was a meeting point for smugglers of all kinds. The kind of place she thought only existed in movies and TV shows. The good thing was, she turned out to have wisely picked her outfit, as she noticed that nobody was really paying attention to her, and the other women she managed to spot here and there weren't wearing flashy clothes nor outrageous makeup. And there was definitely nobody fancy here. The music, some kind of minimalist electro with powerful bass, was not too loud, at least it allowed conversation.

Rio guided her to a vacant poseur table in a corner near the wall and gently squeezed her shoulder as he brought his mouth close to her ear.

"You stay here, Imma get us some drinks."

She nodded as he turned away, crossing the half-empty dance floor to reach the bar on the other side, and she realized he hadn't even asked her what she wanted to order. However, she rolled her eyes with surprise when he handed her a bourbon a few minutes later, and they clinked their glasses. He waited for her to take a sip before he started.

"Al'ight, so, I got a problem with one of my boys. Think he's stealin' from me, tryin' to bypass me to set a deal with somebody else and sell the product. I need to know who."

"So who are we meeting?" she asked, confused.

"We ain't meetin' anyone, sweetheart. They are. We watch," he replied with a smirk.

"And why do you need me for that? You think I have a better sight than you?" she ironized.

"Naah... See, the thing is, a lonely dude lookin' around, you spot that right away, but nobody pays attention to a couple."

"So I'm supposed to play your girlfriend here?" she asked, shocked.

He gave her a side look, "Pretty much, yeah... Think you can handle that?"

She gave him an annoyed shrug, "I guess it's too late to question this point."

Why did he always have to do that? And why did he have to ask _her_? He surely had a whole slew of younger, prettier women that would have been a better fit, maybe he even had an actual girlfriend now that she was thinking about it.

"Couldn't you ask anybody else? A friend? Are we even... plausible?" she asked.

He frowned, some anger flickering in his eyes, "What, you think this is bring-your-friend-to-work day or somethin'? This is work, ma, I don't bring personal acquaintances in that shit!"

She nodded, discouraged, and took another sip of her drink while Rio was surreptitiously looking around him, glancing at his watch once in a while.

"Okay, they should be here by now," he told her a few minutes later.

She raised her head and looked around. The club was much more crowded than when they had come in, and spotting someone in particular in the dim light seemed tricky.

"Come on," he suddenly said with a wave of his head towards the now fully occupied dance floor.

She followed him, almost hypnotized, but she couldn't repress a startle when he put his arm around her waist. Although he would sometimes touch her when they would meet, it never had been more than a squeeze on her shoulder, or a soft caress on her temple, he never had _held_ her before, and that thought was somehow both frightening and exciting.

"Don't worry, ma, I promise I ain't takin' advantage of you, but you gotta follow my lead, okay?" he gently told her as he felt her body reaction.

And the truth was, he wasn't indeed taking advantage of the situation. He could have held his drink the same way he was holding her, his fingers weren't wandering around, and she could tell that his focus was somewhere else. She nodded and as they joined the dance floor, she placed her hand on his shoulder, vaguely pretending to dance with him, although she noticed that the people dancing around them were way too wasted to pay attention to how shitty they were at this.

"Your acting is terrible, ma," Rio whispered a few minutes later, as he was manoeuvering her around the dance floor to attentively peer at the surroundings.

"Well guess what, I'm not running for the Oscars!" she struck back, dented in her pride.

He pursed his lips, and she could literally see his brain running and looking for a sharp reply, when she felt his body freeze under her hand for an instant.

"Got 'em," he whispered.

He gently pulled her outside of the dance floor and took her arm as he made his way through the crowd, heading towards the bar while he kept sending quick glances aside.

"Shit!" she suddenly heard him hiss.

"What?" she asked in a low voice, without looking at him as she pretended to be searching for an available table.

"Imma need you to really follow my lead on this, ma, no shit or we dead!"

She barely had time to process his words that he was already pushing her against the club brick wall and pressing his body against hers. She gasped in surprise, and maybe also a little from the thrill too. She was close enough to smell his scent and that made her feel dizzy as it was a little intoxicating.

His face came closer until their lips were almost touching, "Relax, we're just pretendin'. Put your arms around me," he enjoined her.

She complied, placing one of her hands in his middle back and the other one at the back of his neck, and he grinded into her hips, one hand in her hair and one at her ribcage, and she noticed that he was carefully avoiding to touch her breast, even by accident. They couldn't have offered a better living example of two people kissing except their lips weren't touching. She couldn't help but feel a little aroused from this whole situation, but she kept a neutral face.

"Okay, we got a problem," he muttered against her lips. "See those guys over there, table behind me?"

She gave a quick glance above his shoulder, "Uhuh?" she affirmatively hummed.

"That my boy. He's after a bigger fish than I thought. Andrei. He knows me. If that guy sees me here we're both dead."

She couldn't repress a shiver and his hand gently squeezed her waist in a reassuring way.

"So I hope you have that good sight you were talkin' 'bout earlier, cause Imma need you to watch this for me."

Their lips were slightly brushing as he was moving his head in a sensual kissing motion, and her breath was already breaking from that proximity.

"I've got to say, I don't have much visibility over there with your face dry-sucking mine!" she managed to articulate.

"Al'ight, lemme get you a better view, then," he replied.

He suddenly buried his face in her neck and this time she couldn't repress her loud gasp, as she felt his warm breath against her skin, although his lips weren't touching her. She had to admit that now she had the clandestine meeting in full display. She slightly moved her head forward, only to watch more attentively, and not at all because, as a result, the skin of her neck ended up pressed against Rio's lips. There were four men around the table, two of them being obvious sidekicks, she had seen enough of the kind during her meetings with Rio to be able to recognize them at first sight. The third man was young and wearing a black T-shirt, probably Rio's boy, and he was showing a bundle of cash to the man facing him. The latter was older, probably in his 50s, and was wearing a grey suit. Rio gave her a few more seconds before his mouth came back at her lips.

"Better not let 'em see your pretty face for too long," he mumbled. "So?"

"So they are indeed discussing around a roll of banknotes, but my sight's not good enough to see if it's counterfeit or not," she whispered, trying not to get distracted by his breath against her mouth.

"Whatchu think?" he asked with amusement in his eyes.

She suddenly had a huge doubt about all of this.

"Wait, do you even know these guys at all?"

"Fuckin' no idea of who these dudes are," he replied with a chuckle, "Just wanted to pretend to kiss you."

She cocked her eyebrows, "Seriously?"

Well, he could just have asked, she thought.

"Nah, I'm jokin', we really dead if we mess this up," he told her as his face got back to serious.

They had been fake-kissing for a few minutes now and she was comfortable with that new proximity, her body completely relaxed against his. She noticed that her hands were wandering around his back and neck almost automatically, just like his own hand didn't seem that much in control anymore as it was running up and down from her hips to the curve of her breast. She gave another quick glance back over his shoulder and her body suddenly tensed with fear.

Rio felt it immediately, "What?"

"One of the goons is coming over," she squeaked in a low voice, panicked.

She saw his jaw ticking as he looked as tense as her.

"Ready for the big show, then?" he asked.

She slightly nodded and he pressed his mouth against hers, catching her lips between his, and she felt something explode inside of her. Both her hands came around his head to hide his face from whoever was coming to check, and he did more or less the same as his hands cupped her jaws, sending bolts of electricity in her flesh. They kept their mouths closed, though, and she was quite impressed with his self-control and the way he didn't take advantage of this. Maybe he didn't _want_ to kiss her, after all, she thought.

But at some point, he slightly opened his mouth, and she wasn't sure about if this was intentional or not, but she was dying for it so she decided to take it as an invitation and she slid the tip of her tongue in his mouth, teasing. He immediately pulled back his head, just enough to break the emerging kiss without blowing their cover.

"Whatchu doin'?" he asked.

"Running for the Oscars," she panted, her heart racing.

"Al'ight."

His lips came back on hers, his mouth open this time, and she slightly moaned when their tongue met, timidly playing at first before twirling passionately as the kiss was deepening. Rio let out a muffled growl and pressed himself harder against her, his finger probably printing bruises in her neck and her cheeks, while she endlessly pulled his head closer, pressing her mouth against his and letting out loud gasps as he voraciously sucked and bit her lips. She realized she'd been waiting for this for a long time, and now that it was happening she couldn't get enough of it, barely breathing as he was possessively sinking his teeth in her bottom lip before slipping his tongue back in her mouth, his lips more and more demanding as the kiss was lasting and getting hotter.

They'd been kissing for at least several minutes when she opened her eyes, vaguely wondering why they were still alive, and she peered at the meeting table.

"They're gone," she realized out loud.

Rio immediately pulled away, and all the pressure on her body instantly vanished, leaving only a frustrating emptiness. He considered her for a few seconds, licking his lips before he wiped them with the back of his hand.

"Good. I guess we can leave too, then," he dully said.

She didn't say a word as he drove her back home, simultaneously relishing the memory of the kiss and anxiously wondering if this had gone too far.

They both climbed out of the car when he pulled over in front of her house, and he escorted her to her front door. She turned around to face him and he considered her, almost patronizing in the way he was towering her.

"Guess your actin' ain't that bad, after all," he finally let out with a smirk.

"I'd say yours is okay," she teased back with a flirtatious smile.

He came closer and she thought he was going to kiss her again but he just stared deeply in her eyes.

"Have a good night, Elizabeth. And give those lips a rest, huh?"

He patted her shoulder and took a step back, a deviant smile blossoming on his lips as he added, "Til next time, darlin'."

He turned away and climbed back in his car before she could find anything to retort. 

Later that night, as she was lying in her bed, she found herself way too restless to sleep and she kept thinking about what had happened in the club. Dean had never kissed her like that. _Nobody_ had ever kissed her like that. She finally let out a discouraged sigh and her hand groped for her vibrator in the drawer of her nightstand as she closed her eyes, focusing her mind on Rio's lips.


	2. This Is Only Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Going to second base? Rio keeps sending mixed signals, and well, Beth... is bething!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I know this was supposed to be a one-shot only, but then I got some ideas for a few more delightfully hypocritical chapters, and this is so much fun to write between two angsty chapters of my other WIP that I couldn't resist...

_Til next time darlin'!_

Beth had assumed Rio had only been teasing her with this, that an occasion like this one might never present itself again.

But it didn't lessen the residual feeling from what had already happened. Since that night in the club, she felt like every nerve in her body was on fire whenever she was around him. If she was honest with herself, she had to admit that she'd always been somehow attracted to Rio despite how much he scared the shit out of her, she was attracted to his voice, to the way he was talking to her, playing with her, teasing, pushing her every boundary including something as basic as her personal space. It had always thrilled her, and not in a good, healthy way. But now, things were way worse. Every time they met, generally because she was delivering freshly washed cash, she couldn't detach her eyes from him, and the growing heat between her legs was almost aching. She'd had a chance at touching him once, knowing what it felt like to have the lines of his body pressed against hers, and now she just wanted more of it. She couldn't watch him in the eyes without feeling the touch of his lips on her mouth, and that was a strongly distracting thought. 

The worst part was that she had to hide it not only from him, which seemed to be an already lost battle anyway, but also from Ruby and Annie. She hadn't told them anything about the night at the club and she didn't intend to. She could already hear their shocked lectures about how that man was dangerous and threatening their lives, and how mixing this already unhealthy basic concept of their relationship to even first base limited intimacy was problematic. And she knew it was, she wasn't even willing to discuss that point, but she had to hide it anyway. And as if that wasn't already enough, she had the feeling that Rio knew that she was thinking about it more than she should have. Maybe it was just her, maybe it was just in her head, but from the way he looked at her, the way he smirked, she was almost sure he knew exactly when she was thinking about his tongue around hers while he spoke to her.

And the thing was, maybe after a reasonable amount of drinks she'd have willingly admitted to anyone that she was blatantly waiting for it to happen again. But Rio had never given her any clue about his own desire, about the fact that him asking for that cover from her might not have been that innocent despite the way he had kissed her, a way she refused to believe that anyone, even him, could have feigned. However he'd kept acting like a businessman as usual, and nothing had changed in their interactions ever since, so she'd gotten used to the idea that she was the only one fantasizing here. Which is why she got truly surprised when he popped back again in her house one night.

"Wanna get nominated again for the golden statuette?" he asked her point blank.

She watched him, puzzled. Would he have looked just a tiny bit more enthusiastic to it, she'd have asked him to kiss her right now without bothering with finding a pretext for it. Which she admitted wouldn't have been the smartest move in the world, but she was already past three bourbons, so her sense of responsibility was a little blunt. But he didn't look like this was something he was looking forward to, quite the opposite actually. His face was wearing this annoyed expression telling her that she was definitely not his first choice but that he was running out of options. In fact, that was even kind of hurtful, now that she was thinking about it, and she wanted to say no, only to bother him.

"What do you need from me now?" she muttered instead, internally cursing herself for being so weak, before she remembered that the man in front of her carried a gun and wouldn't hesitate to threatening her whole family if he wasn't pleased with her answer so she might as well stop thinking right now about any kind of negotiation.

"It's an... engagement party," he replied with a disgusted wince.

She almost burst into laughter. And what about being his date at some cousin's Bar Mitzvah, or a Thanksgiving dinner with his family while he was at it!

"I'm sorry but it doesn't sound work-related," she pointed out, raising her eyebrows, "I'm sure you'll find someone else to keep you company there."

He sank his teeth in his bottom lip, carefully watching her.

"Actually... it is work, ma," he hissed between his teeth, "The girl's dad's one of my associates and we got some stuff to discuss."

"And I'm supposed to play your girlfriend again," she said, half-stating and half-asking.

"Yup."

"Why do you even need a plus one for a business talk, then?" she asked, still in disbelief.

"Oh I'm sorry sweetheart, I thought you'd be happy to get a recurring role! Unless you're more the kind to be into... one-shots?" he drawled.

She sighed, unsure of the connotation of what he'd just said, but Rio could have put a sexual innuendo to _'Hi'_ if he'd wanted to, so she wasn't exactly eager to start that battle now.

"I need you to take some stuff while I keep him busy," he finally explained.

She widely opened her eyes, "What? You want me to _rob_ someone?"

He buried his hands in the pockets of his jacket and stretched his shoulders with a wide smile, "Yeah, right, cuz you're not into robbery at all... Tell me, what was the name of that grocery store again?"

She lowered her eyes. In some way, that was a compliment. He was acknowledging her skills as a thief enough to ask her to perform another show, but she wasn't sure that this was the part of her she wanted him to like the most.

"Fine. What kind of stuff?" she asked.

"Papers. Mostly. It's all stored in a safe, but I'll give you the code for it."

She frowned, "Can I ask you why you need to steal things from your _associate_?"

Rio peered at her for a few seconds, probably wondering what he could or could not tell her, before he shrugged, "Let's just say that those things used to be mine".

She chuckled, thinking about the reason why he had taken her to the club the other time, "Wow, looks like a lot of people you work with are stealing from you, maybe you should check your HR policy!"

"I already started," he replied with a burning look that had her melting inside, before she blushed when she realized that technically speaking she had been stealing from Rio too.

"Al'ight," he added, "I'm pickin' you up on Saturday at 10am. Make sure you wear summin' that fits a mildly fancy garden party."

At least this time he was giving her a little more details about this _before_ they went, but she suddenly realized he'd mentioned Saturday.

"Wait, I can't, I have to take Kenny to his karate class, and then Jane has to go to ballet..."

"Someone's gonna pick 'em up, I already made arrangements," he coldly replied.

She got suddenly mad at him for arranging her schedule without even asking her, and she wasn't exactly keen on the idea of letting her children to the hands of complete strangers, but he conveniently rearranged his shirt at the very same moment, letting her see his gun at his waistband.

"Okay," she finally surrendered.

He slowly walked towards her until he was too close from anybody's judgment except his apparently.

"10am Saturday, remember?" he softly asked and she nodded. And then, with an ironical smile stretching his lips, "You good or you need rehearsal practicing?"

She swallowed.

"I'm good, thank you!" she coldly replied, trying to ignore how her whole body was just turning into jelly right now, because she was way too pissed-off to answer anything else despite how much she wanted him to kiss her.

"Yeah... Figured that too," he whispered, his face still inches away from her when his tongue darted out to lick his lips in an intolerably hot motion that made her loudly exhale before he turned away and left her house.

She rushed into her bedroom the second he was out and she'd already opened her nightstand drawer when she heard the front door closing.

Finding an appropriate outfit for a garden party was much less of a challenge than it had been for the trashy club, but she chose to put on a little show anyway. She was still pissed-off for his cavalier attitude in the way he'd made arrangements about her kids and changed her plans at the very last moment. And maybe she also wanted to make him feel at least a part of the unbearable tension she experienced around him since they had kissed at the club.

He didn't say anything when he picked her up on Saturday morning though, and the ticking of his jaw was the only tangible body reaction from him showing that he wasn't completely indifferent to the deep neckline of her adjusted dress and her matching stiletto heels. She couldn't repress her smirk in the car, until he started to fill her in with the details of their mission. He'd already texted her the day before a few more info, and she knew that the party was taking place at Rio's associate's family house, where he kept a safe in a room that was more or less his office. 

"Al'ight, so this guy I talked you 'bout, he's very paranoid, he won't let anybody get close to his safe. Imma need you to play it silly so he doesn't get suspicious and everythin'. Just pretend to go to the bathroom when I start talkin' to him. But I can only get you a couple minutes before he gets back, you understand me?"

"What do you mean, playing silly?" she asked.

"You know, just be all like a giggly blabbermouth, that kind of stuff," he replied with a little smile.

That was so not her that she'd have bet he was doing it on purpose to embarrass her, but she was decided not to let him win the game this time.

"Oh, so you get to play the slightly annoyed one? What a character role!" she ironized.

He shrugged as a reaction and she added, "Could you specify the state of our relationship, then?"

"Whatchu mean?" he furrowed, focused on the driving.

"How long have we supposedly been dating? Are we in a good place right now?" she asked, purposely annoying him.

"Oh you want a back-story for you character, huh? How 'bout you're the irritating, needy kind who's waitin' for a proposal and keeps alludin' 'bout it on someone else's engagement party, then?" he replied, teasing.

"Oh you don't know what you just signed up for, honey!" she giggled, accepting his challenge.

And she actually got proud of the pain in the ass she turned into on that day. She mostly overdid it as she spent the first couple of hours literally hanging to Rio's arm, blabbering around, making an exaggerated use of sentences starting with _'We'_, and kissing his cheek at least twice a minute. That was actually a refreshing part to play since it was so unlike her. She'd thought about it during the last minutes of the drive, how she'd never ever had been the kind of person blatantly waiting for commitment. In her own back-story, that had more been Dean's feature, since he'd been the one eager to put a ring on her as soon as he'd been able to afford it. Sometimes she wondered if she shouldn't have turned him down that day he'd proposed, asked for a couple more years on her own before committing for life. Maybe things would have gone differently twenty years later. But that wasn't the point right now.

After a tedious outside luncheon she'd spent talking nonsense to people she'd never met before and would probably never come across afterwards, Rio and her were walking around in the garden, paying respects to total strangers while she was meditating about the relevance of wearing stilettos at a party mostly taking place on lawn. However, she knew that the important showdown had not come yet.

"How do you do that?" Rio suddenly asked her, and she could tell from his tone that he was impressed.

"Do what?" she asked, confused.

"Talk," he cryptically replied.

And the truth was, she didn't know herself how lies were coming so easily to her mind and mouth, how she made them sound so convincing, and why she enjoyed it so much. She was a former member of her high school drama club, of course, but it had always felt more like a convenient extracurricular activity than an actual hobby.

"I guess everyone comes in this life with their own gifts," she replied instead, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

He gave her a burning side look but he didn't answer.

"Get ready for my signal then cuz the big show is comin' soon," he simply grumbled instead.

"What's the signal?" she asked.

He pinched her ass as a response and she startled.

His physical attitude towards her on this cover was radically different from what it had been at the club. The dim light back there, the drunkenness, the hot atmosphere of sweating dancing bodies, it had all been an incentive to unbridled, dangerous flirting. Not that she'd had any problem with that, though. But this party was different, people were fancy there, conventional, older, although many of them were probably members of mobs or crime syndicates which made her feel like she'd accidentally fallen into a scene from _The Godfather_. The bottom line was that she'd soon realized that her chances at feeling Rio's body pressing against her while he'd french her again tended to stand below zero. Of course, he still touched her since they were pretending to be a couple, but it was more the tender, absent-minded kind of long-term relationships touching. He would kiss her forehead and hold her hand the same way Dean used to do before she kicked him out of the house. But no matter the absence of passion in Rio's pretended signs of affection, his touch never failed at setting her on fire, and his apparent lack of enthusiasm for it made it even more frustrating. And since she was frustrated, and incidentally still pissed-off, she was doing what she did best in such circumstances: making it worse. As a result, from an external point of view, they were probably offering the unsettling show of two people who covered each other with cute, if not sickening, special attentions while looking particularly annoyed with one another.

Which was why she was utterly surprised by what he just did because there was something different in the way he'd just touched her, something more... _appreciative_. She gave him a shocked glance, but mainly for the show, and then she didn't have to think about it for too long because a few minutes later, he was talking to some dude in a tuxedo, introducing her to him, and discreetly squeezing her ass again, and, well, that _was_ the signal.

"I'm so glad to see that Rio is finally over his dumb girlfriends phase! You look so... normal," Tuxedo guy was oddly telling her at that very moment, and Beth had to bite the internal side of her cheeks not to laugh out loud. Rio had had a dumb girlfriends phase! And Tuxedo guy might end up disappointed with her, she thought.

"I'm sorry, I have to go to the bathroom, daaaarling, be back soon!" she exclaimed in her most convincing innocent Marilyn voice before she pressed an exaggerated kiss on Rio's cheek.

She grabbed a glass of champagne from the first waiter she came across and she rushed into the house, knowing where she was heading to. Rio had sent her a map of the house the day before, and she knew that she only had to climb the grand staircase and then go for the corridor on the left. Lucky for her, there was a bathroom at the end of that corridor, so if anyone saw her there she could still use that alibi. However, she immediately spotted that something was wrong when she came across the office she was supposed to enter, because there was a random goon standing in front of the door, preventing any entrance. She only gave it two seconds of thinking since she didn't have more time to come up with a whole new plan, but she would tell herself later that maybe this had been a mistake.

As she was only a meter away from the door, she purposely tripped over her own feet and she collapsed letting out a dramatic squeak, her hand clamped around the glass of champagne until she felt it breaking against the floor, and she made sure that shards of glass were sinking deep in the flesh of her palm.

"My hand!" she immediately whimpered, raising her palm already dripping with blood.

The guard's reaction was immediate, "Don't move, mam, I'll go fetch summin' for it!"

She was almost surprised he didn't even bother to block the door, but he was probably thinking that if she was stupid or drunk enough to trip over her own foot, she'd have no interest in entering the room. 

She watched him racing downstairs and she was back on her feet the second he was out of sight. She winced, trying to ignore the burning pain from her right hand, and she slipped into the office, careful not to let any treacherous blood droplet over her tracks. She didn't have a lot of time so she went straight to the safe, using the code Rio had provided her, and emptied it from its content without even bothering to check what it was she was taking and if it was all Rio's stuff. Whatever it was, it went all in her pouch.

She understood she'd made the right choice at loosing no time when she saw the goon coming back with a first aid kit only three seconds after she'd sat back on the floor, and left her tears roll freely down her cheeks. Now that the adrenaline of theft was gone, she felt the pain, and the sight of her own blood on her palm bristled with glass shards had her hyperventilating with the beginning of a panic attack. The guy was retrieving tweezers from the kit and he'd just taken her hand in his when she heard the voices of Rio and his associate in the hall. He really did gave her only a couple of minutes! And maybe they'd seen the goon rushing upstairs with the first aid kit, or maybe they'd heard her sobs and whimpers, but before she knew it they were standing right there too with dismayed faces.

"Honey, what happened?" Rio exclaimed, and despite his acting tone, she could tell he was a little worried for real and certainly not expecting this turn of events as his brows furrowed.

She raised her eyes at him.

"I slipped and broke my glass in my hand," she plaintively said with a childish voice, but her stare was telling him a different story.

He imperceptibly cocked one eyebrow, asking her the only question that really mattered to him, and she answered it with the slightest nod. She saw his smirk, although he quickly hid it under layers of worry.

"Lemme take care of you," he softly said, pushing the goon aside as he sat beside Beth and took her hand in his, her palm facing the skies.

She shivered under his touch despite the pain, but then she was only moans and winces as he was carefully removing the glass shards from her cut skin.

"I don't think you need stitches," he told her, "You'll be fine with steri-strips."

He cleaned an disinfected her wounds with a surprising softness before putting the strips, and when he got finished he pressed a kiss on her inner wrist with a worshipping look in his eyes, and she wasn't sure anymore of whether this was still for the show or not.

"I... I'm gonna go to the bathroom," she hoarsely said.

He nodded and she quickly escaped. Once locked inside, she cleaned up her face and re-adjusted her make-up, before she looked at the content of her purse with a doubtful expression on her face. Just like Rio had said, there were mostly papers in the safe, but also, and she thought that was the interesting part, a small USB device. However, she bit her lips as she was worried that keeping any of that in her purse would probably not be very wise, if Tuxedo guy was as paranoid as Rio implied.

When she went out, Rio was leaning against the wall nearby, waiting for her.

"You okay?" he gently asked, and she nodded. "Doesn't hurt too much?" he insisted.

She gave him a patronizing look, "I gave birth four times, you know that, right?" and he pouted, surrendering to her point.

And the truth was, once it was all stripped and cleaned up, it wasn't that painful, unless she focused her mind on it, in which case, yeah, she could feel the burning, but otherwise, it was easily forgettable. Even better, now that all the tension from her moment of action was gone, she mostly felt euphoric.

"How was I?" she asked with a beaming smile that made him give her a look that clearly questioned her sanity.

"You... did the job," he finally told her, "Listen ma, d'you mind if we stay a couple hours more? Would be suspicious if we leave right now."

She wasn't particularly eager to stay there, and she could tell from his voice that he wasn't either, but he had a point.

"Okay," she softly said.

The tables outside had been cleared out to make room for dancing, and Rio's arm wrapped itself around her waist as he tugged her towards the large circle where a dozen of couples were already slow-dancing on some romantic music.

"You in for dancin'?" he asked, raising one eyebrow, and she acquiesced.

Whatever, she thought. It was only when he pulled her closer and she felt his lips brushing her temple that she realized that she was going to spend an undefined amount of time in his achingly burning proximity, and she almost pulled out at the thought.

He probably felt her unconscious recoil as he suddenly told her, "Still pretendin'. If you ain't comfortable with it just tell me and we stop."

She raised her head at him, painfully aware that her lips were one tiptoe away from his mouth, "Oh I think I've been comfortable with way worse!"

He chuckled but didn't say anything, and she slowly lowered her head forward until her cheek rested against his jaw. She closed her eyes, relishing the grazing from his stubble as they were slowly moving with the music. She actually enjoyed the feeling of leaning against him, the touch of his hand in her back, and the thrill of the fingers of his other hand entwined with hers. It made her feel safe. And yeah, very much turned on too, but that didn't seem to be the point. She wondered if he had a girlfriend for real, outside the workfield, and she suddenly giggled.

"What?" she heard him whisper.

"So you had a dumb girlfriends phase?" she couldn't help but ask.

He let out a little hum and she didn't need to watch to just know that he was smiling, "How d'you think Roberto sees you now after your lil' trippin' show?"

Roberto? Oh, right. She thought that was probably Tuxedo guy's real name but she didn't bother to ask.

"By the way," Rio started again, " Did you seriously stick sharp glass in your hand just to create a diversion?" he whispered, his lips brushing the hair just above her ear and sending delicious bolts of electricity along her spine and into her whole body.

"Well, I had to do something, didn't I?" she managed to answer.

He didn't say anything for a while, and she thought he wouldn't mention it again, but he finally said, "You a crazy bitch, you know that?"

And this time she knew he was impressed.

As they were about to leave, something like an hour later, one of Roberto's boys came to them.

"I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to search you before you leave. Orders of the boss," he told them with a bored look.

Beth felt Rio suddenly tensing behind her, but she gently smiled at the goon. From what she could see, Roberto had given a searching order on everybody, which meant he'd probably discovered the theft by now. Or the guy was just pathologically paranoid. And she couldn't help but feel some pity for the goon. He probably had higher dreams when he'd joined the mob than basic nightclub security duties. She willingly handed her pouch and the guy went through her lipstick and her phone before he gave it back to her.

"Thanks, mam. Your pockets, sir," he asked Rio.

He didn't find anything either, though, and they both left the party. Rio waited until they were both out of the house to comment, "Didn't think he'd put it that far. Searchin' people at his daughter's engagement party, c'mon!"

"Do you think that he knows you're behind the theft?" she asked as they reached the car.

"Course he knows," Rio replied with a shrug while he sat behind the wheel and started the engine, "He just has no idea of who's carryin' it for me."

Just like the other time, they didn't exchange a word while he drove her back home. It was only once he'd pulled over in her alley that he stopped the engine and turned his face to her.

"Roberto's boy didn't find it in your purse, so... Gonna tell me where you hid it?" he asked, his voice drawling as always but carrying a hint of threat.

She took her time to stare deeply in his eyes before she answered, "In my bra," And as she saw his eyes widen she added with a smirk, "One of the few perks of having an ample bosom, I guess."

He bit his bottom lip and she felt the air thickening around them, making it hard to breath. And then, eyes locked with him, she slowly, so slowly, raised her hand to her cleavage, taking her time to land on the soft skin of her chest before her fingers slipped under the fabric of her dress at an agonizing pace. Rio was watching her, hypnotized, and his pupils were so dilated that she couldn't even distinguish them from his dark brown iris, as his eyes had just turned into two black holes of lust. She let her fingers play with the curve of her breast, shivering under the coldness of her fingertips, and she couldn't repress the tiniest little moan when her palm rubbed her already hard nipple. She kept staring at Rio the whole time, biting her lips, until she heard the creaking sound of his knuckles as the joints of his one hand that was still around the wheel had suddenly whitened.

"Oh right, cause this is only work... Yeah," she whispered, and she slowly licked her lips with the tip of her tongue.

A frustrated hoarse noise escaped from Rio's throat but he kept watching, his jaw ticking and she could tell he was this close to start shaking. 

"Careful with the paper cuts, then," he managed to say with a half-choked voice in a vain attempt to restore his cool.

The heat and the tension were almost unbearable, even for her, as her fingers kept playing absent-mindedly with the soft flesh of her breast while all she could think about was how much she wished that this hand she felt against her skin was his.

She finally retrieved the precious documents after what seemed to be an eternity of self-involved foreplay and his hand darted forward, immediately catching the papers still tepid from the warmth of her skin. She gasped as his fingers wrapped around hers in the process. She gave him a hazed look and her lips parted as she let her desire overwhelm her, but she knew she was only seconds away from losing her mind and kiss him, so she broke their eye-contact and grabbed her purse.

But as she climbed out of the car, she glanced back at him one more time and her lips stretched into a satisfied smirk when she saw that his gaze expressed nothing but a promise of punishment. And God, wasn't she craving for it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this shameless bait, Beth got to second base with herself... But Rio's thoughts were very much with her!😂
> 
> Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna bathe in ice cubes... 🧯🧯


	3. Break Us Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby: "Careful, playing with fire _might be hot!_"
> 
> Literally everybody: *nodding in approval*
> 
> Beth and Rio: *plugging their ears* "Lalalalalalalala..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to write a fun story here, but it's Brio *sigh* so it gets a little angsty sometimes... So just a little warning here, there is a little bit of violence at the beginning of this chapter, involving gun threats, choking and slightly non consensual content, but it's all really light and not so graphic.

It took him fifteen minutes to figure it out after she'd climbed out of the car following her little busty show, and honestly, Beth had thought he would have gotten there way sooner. She wasn't surprised to see him suddenly materialize in her living room — "God, I was right here, how do you even do that?" she'd exclaimed — but this time his gaze was no longer teasing.

"I think you forgot to give me summin'," he threateningly said.

He was giving her a last chance to pretend she had forgotten, offering her the benefit of the doubt, but she recklessly shook her head, "No, I didn't."

"Yeah you did," he grinded between his teeth, "You think I dunno what was in that safe, huh?"

She swallowed. Her heart was beating fast, each pulse making her feel the slight pressure of the USB stick against the skin of the breast she hadn't played with in the car.

"I think you know exactly what was in that safe," she quietly told him, "But whatever you want now, it comes with a price."

She immediately regretted what she'd just said as he furiously walked at her and the next thing she knew he was in her back, one forearm pressed against her throat and firmly holding her against him while he was roughly pulling his gun under her jaw with his other hand. 

Over the last few weeks after that time at the club, she had let herself believe that he kind of had a thing for her, she'd been deluding herself with the idea that he would never harm her, convinced that even if it was too early to talk about friendship, they had reached a certain level of bonding that would protect her from his street gang violence.

Well, obviously she was wrong. 

She tried to struggle, grabbing his forearm with both her hands, but he was too strong for her, and the pressure on her throat was growing as she tried to pull away so she quickly stopped struggling back.

"What makes you think you can impose your price to me, huh?" he hissed in her ear, the barrel of his gun pushing harder against her jaw bone, forcing her head to bend backwards.

"I just... I just want my cut!" she managed to answer in a squeak.

She was scared, but she didn't want him to think he could intimidate her. She'd already asked him to never point a gun at her face again, and he wouldn't even respect _that_, she thought, infuriated.

"I helped you with your business. Twice. I made you save money. I think I deserve my share," she hoarsely added, coughing and choking under the pressure of his arm.

There was a silence during which she knew he was thinking about what she just said, but he didn't ease his tight grip on her.

Then he chuckled, with that beginning of a psychotic laughter he sometimes let out whenever he was the one who got to decide someone's life or death with a small twitch of his pointer, and that sound scared her more than the gun or the choking, because it meant that he wasn't impressed at all with her.

"That's too bad, darlin', that's too bad. You see, you bitch have a point, but you just ruined it cause you been stealin' from me! What is it you said 'bout HR policy the other day?" he cruelly teased.

"Get off me!" she pleaded.

"Where did you hid it this time, huh? In your panties?" he joylessly joked.

The pressure from the gun disappeared and she felt him putting it back in his waistband before his hand landed on her ribcage and she gasped in terror. But he definitely wasn't in a lustful mood right now, she could tell that from the way he was touching her, and his over the clothes pat-down around her chest almost felt medical. It only took him ten seconds and the back of his hand to localize what he was looking for under her left breast.

"Give it to me now. I ain't fetchin' that myself," he growled.

She tried to struggle instead, unwilling to let him win this battle. The USB was her only card to play with, but he didn't exactly give her any chance as he pressed harder on her throat.

"I said now!"

She could barely breathe this time, desperately choking against his arm with ringing in her ears and she felt she was about to faint. Defeated, she frantically buried her hand in her cleavage and smashed the device on the floor, wishing she could throw it at his face instead. The pressure around her neck immediately dropped and she breathed loudly, half sobbing, but he didn't let her go yet.

"You think you special, huh? You think I need you just cuz you washed a few grand of pocket money?" he coldly reminded her in a hiss before he added, "You think I can't have my way with you if I want to?"

That was the last straw that broke the camel's back, and it gave her the furious energy to break out of his grip, and this time he let her go. She turned around to face him, her arms crossed on her chest.

"Really? A good old rape threat? From you? How classy, Rio."

He shrugged, "Never said it wouldn't be consensual."

She shook her head in astonishment, still in shock from what just happened, "I thought you were worth better than that!"

"And I thought you were worth better than alluring me with your tits to steal from me," he threw back at her with a smirk.

"Oh so that's what all of this is about then? You're upset because you think you're so attractive that I'd put on such a show just for your good looks?" she provocatively replied in absolute bad faith.

He didn't answer right away and he thoughtfully considered her for a while, biting his bottom lip. He picked the USB stick on the floor in a smooth move before he slowly walked towards her, making her step back until she hit the wall, and he stood right in front of her.

"Listen, I don't feel like I'm being unreasonable here," she tried again, "I mean, I've nicely agreed on helping you twice, and —"

His jaw was hard and he looked annoyed with her, "So what, you want a medal? A reward kiss maybe?"

As he spoke, he grabbed a handful of her hair and he roughly kissed her with a mean and punishing intent, and she thought that he was ironically giving her what she'd been craving the most all day, but in the worst possible way. She spat at his face when their eyes met again and he slowly wiped his cheek with the back of his hand.

"You want your cut, huh? Well guess what: you're cut! Over," he coldly told her, "And the Monopoly money too," he added.

She thought about the ocean of debts she was still struggling with. She thought about Annie's and Ruby's personal money issue. That was literally the worst moment for them to stop washing cash, they all badly needed this.

"Please don't!" she hissed, as he was leaving, "We need the money!"

"Lotta people do, Elizabeth. Ain't makin' you special."

She heard the door closing and she let herself slide down along the wall, crying and defeated.

But on the next day, she thought that maybe it was for the best. At least, now she was out of danger, they were all out of danger, not involved anymore with the violent street gang. Over the next two weeks, she got concerned about the money, though, and at first she didn't tell the girls that they'd been cut for good. Instead she came up with an elaborate story about a temporary shutdown because she was too ashamed to tell them the truth, which would also have involved her telling them about playing Rio's girlfriend twice. She could already hear Annie's mocking laughter and Ruby's reprobating tone and she was in no state to handle that. It was still a little hurtful. She couldn't believe how stupid and immature she had been to lose her head like a teenager over a gangbanger. The wake-up call had been hard to swallow, but at least now she could get him out of her system for good. Or so she thought.

Because two weeks after their last encounter, he popped in her kitchen and she didn't even bother to politely ask him not to do that again.

"What now?" she angrily snapped at him, her arms crossed.

"Imma need you back on set again. Not that I'm psyched 'bout it," he informed her with a neutral face.

She could tell he was trying his best not to be too teasing or ironic with this, which meant that he knew he wasn't exactly welcome in her home right now. Hence he must badly need her help if that made him swallow his pride that much, and she thought that was something she might be able to use against him.

She rolled her eyes, "No."

She was expecting him to insist a little, and then she was planning on telling him her conditions, but he didn't even let her go through this.

"I'll put you and your lady friends back in the funny money loop," he offered.

"I thought I was a liability," she pointed out.

He shrugged, "Not on the Monopoly field."

"Why do you need me? And don't tell me you couldn't find anyone else!"

"Oh I could, ma, and I'd have, believe me, but I ain't in charge of this choice."

She looked at him, confused, "What does that even mean?"

"Roberto asked for you."

She shivered in a stunned silence, unsure of what this involved.

"Oh relax, nothin' dirty, sweetheart!" he smirked, following the train of her thoughts like he usually did, "Actually, I'm tryin' to set a deal with him, and he agreed on concludin' that over a dinner. He's bringin' his wife. It's a double date. And apparently he liked you at his gal's party the other day, no idea why, though."

She shrugged, "Tell him we broke up, then."

Which wasn't actually that far from the truth, she thought. After all, he'd fired her, which from a certain point of view was a kind of professional break up.

Rio winced, "I can't. Actually I already told him I was about to propose to you."

Her eyes widened, "What? Why would you even tell him that? And don't ask me to play _that_ scene with you, because I won't!"

"Didn't say I was plannin' to do it in front of him, what kind of asshole do you think I am?" he chuckled.

"Please don't make me answer that!" she immediately threw back, incapable of passing on the occasion he was probably purposely offering her to make fun of him, and he amusedly smiled at her for a while.

"Roberto's kinda old-fashioned and uptight, like your people," he started to explain.

"Excuse me?" she interrupted with narrowed eyes.

"No offence, ma, but c'mon, you know what I mean!"

She thought about the PTA moms she used to spend all her time with before she met Rio. She had to admit that he had a point so she nodded, waiting for what was coming next.

"That why he usually finds my girls stupid, cuz they ain't fittin' in his world. But you fit in there, ma, you do. And he seems to think that committed people are more trustworthy, so that's why I came up with the proposin' shit."

"That's absurd!"

"It is," he admitted, "But if showin' up with an imaginary fiancée is what it takes for me to get the deal, then I'll do it."

"Wait a minute..." she slowly spoke as she was thinking, "Is that why you asked me to play the needy kind of girlfriend waiting for commitment the last time?"

He proudly smiled and she looked around her, seeking for any object she could throw at his head.

"So you _knew_ this was coming?" she insisted.

"Not exactly, but I knew I might have a shot if things went this way," he shrugged.

"So do I have to expect you to pop by and ask me to play your wife at luncheons every now and then until death do us part?" she ironically asked, "Cause I'm not doing that!"

"Nah, don't worry, ma, I'll tell him you got hit by a bus or summin'," he teased back.

She rolled her eyes at the skies with an exasperated sigh.

"And why is he even setting a deal with someone who just robbed him?" she suddenly remembered.

Talking about robbery reminded her the way he had brutally threatened her and humiliated her the last time she had seen him, and she realized that the idea of impersonating his fiancée wasn't exactly an exciting perspective. His rejection had hurt her, and seeing him in front of her now was still painful.

"Kinda related, actually, we been fightin' over a territory, time to settle the white flag," he explained.

She took a deep breath, thinking about his offer to let them wash cash again after that.

"Fine. But I won't hurt my own hand this time. And I want you to increase our cash-washing cut to fifteen percent after that."

"Deal," he smiled, "I'll pick you up on Friday, then. Seven o'clock."

She sighed as she watched him leave, but as he had almost reached the front door he turned back at her, "Elizabeth?"

She stared at him and nodded, waiting.

"Thanks," he finally softly said.

Finding an outfit for a dinner with old-fashioned, uptight people was the easiest clothing challenge she'd had to face from Rio, it felt like her closet had spent its whole life preparing for that moment. And since she was still angry at Rio, she put on the whole show, letting out the strictest minimal amount of bare skin and giving her hair a mid 50s style that scared even herself. She looked like she just came out of a scene from _Mad Men_, and she couldn't repress a giggle when she spotted the shock in Rio's eyes when he picked her up.

"Man, you know how to leave it all to imagination, huh?" he mocked her, and she couldn't help but remember that the last time she'd been in his car, she had precisely left _nothing_ to the imagination, "Got a lil' summin' for you," he added.

She raised her eyes at him to find him handing her a ring, and she thought that sometimes they pushed their twisted games a little bit too far. The ring was gorgeous though, and she wondered if Rio had chosen it according to his personal taste or hers.

"I asked you last week-end, you said yes, we're happy. I'm sure you'll come up with summin' cute if they ask for details," he grumbled, summarizing their back-story for the night.

She silently put the ring on, avoiding Rio's look as he started the engine and drove them to the restaurant. At least this time she wouldn't have anything special to do except be there and talk, she thought, it wouldn't be as stressful as the garden party. 

When they finally arrived, she got impressed with the way Rio abruptly switched personality, going in a heartbeat from cold and distant with her to lovingly holding her arm with a happy smile the second they walked through the restaurant. She recognized the massive features of Roberto in the back, and she vaguely remembered the woman — presumably his wife — who was sitting by his side from the garden party.

"It's so nice to see the two of you again!" Roberto cheered them with an enthusiasm that didn't seem feigned. 

Maybe Rio was right and he did like her, after all, Beth thought.

"This is my wife, Anita," Roberto added, and Anita gave Beth a beaming smile, "Rio told us the good news, we are so excited about you two!"

_Oh, here we are..._ Beth bravely went through what was probably the most embarrassing minute of her life, showing around the ring on her finger and forcing an excited smile on her face while she was internally cursing Rio for purposely humiliate her with this. He seemed to have a good time for his part, unless his acting skills were way better than she'd thought, and she hated him even more.

"How's your hand?" Roberto politely asked.

She showed him the pink marks that were still a little visible on the inside of her palm, "Looks like my sweet little pumpkin did a good job at taking care of it!" she giggled, enjoying her innocent revenge that consisted of finding ridiculous pet names for Rio.

"How did he propose to you? I want to know everything!" an overexcited Anita asked her right after they ordered starters.

As Anita was speaking, Rio took Beth's hand in his and pressed his burning lips on its back with a look of pure awe in his eyes, and it hurt her so much that she had to control her urge to withdraw her hand from the trap of his touch. She hated him for forcing her to play that part, but mostly, his attitude towards her just made her realize that she didn't want it to be a lie, although she knew that this would never happen, and that acknowledgement was both heartbreaking and terrifying. She didn't want to develop feelings for him, that was an absurd if not stupid idea. The thrill of lust was at most understandable, but she'd never thought there could be anything more, and yet it seemed that somewhere in the blurred lines of their cover game, she'd started to burn her wings against the flame of dangerous flirting. And she had to stop it.

"Oh yeah, I know it doesn't sound very original, but he took me on a surprise week-end to Niagara Falls," she replied with a dreamy smile and stars in her eyes, "He proposed at sunset, we felt like we were the only people in the world, it was magical!" she raved with her cheesiest voice.

She was about to tell them about the little bird that landed on her shoulder while Rio was on his knee when he gave her a warning look. She already knew she was overdoing it, but it was the only way she'd found to release a little bit of her frustration without blowing away their whole operation. But fair enough, she'd go with something else instead.

"You must be so excited!" Roberto said.

"Yeah!" she snorted, "I had been waiting for this for so long, you know... My little birdie's got commitment issues!" she blabbered with the most humiliating pinch at Rio's cheek.

His backfire was instantaneous.

"They don't need to hear 'bout this, my love!" he patronized her while he pulled her at him with an arm around her shoulders to kiss her temple.

She deeply breathed not to roughly pull away, still not over the memory of that same arm choking her two weeks before.

And as the dinner went on, things got worse. She was trying to play her part, but she had troubles controlling her anger and her distress, and she knew that Rio was carefully studying her behavior and never passed on any occasion to let her know that she'd gone too far. At some point she couldn't handle it anymore, and she had to excuse herself to the bathroom.

"Careful with the tripping!" a slightly drunk Roberto exclaimed with a dubious sense of humor.

The bathroom was occupied, but she didn't have to be inside anyway. All she needed was a wall, far away from Rio, to lean against and close her eyes for a minute. Her chest was throbbing with mixed feelings. He still attracted her, she couldn't deny it, but she was too hurt to think about it, and mostly she was mad at him for forcing her to give him heart eyes every time he kissed her hand while his touch only made her want to scream and rip off her own skin. She loudly breathed and let her tears fall freely, releasing a little bit of the tension of the night.

"Summin' wrong, Elizabeth?"

She startled, re-opening her eyes, but it was pointless to check whom that voice belonged to. He was standing in front of her, watching her with something that looked like concern in his expression.

"Jeez, I can't catch a break with you, can I?" she asked irritated, "Aren't you supposed to entertain your guests, slash partners, or whatever they are?"

"You looked upset, I got worried," he replied with a shrug.

"See, normally the thing with worry is to do it _before_ you hurt people, not after," she struck back.

"Did I hurt you?"

The question left her speechless. Of course, he knew he'd hurt her, he couldn't possibly ignore that! But maybe he wanted her to say it, and she wouldn't give him that satisfaction.

"Last time you told me that if I wasn't comfortable with something, I'd just have to say the words to make it stop, right?" she asked instead.

"Yup," he nodded. 

"Well, I'm no longer comfortable with you touching me all the time. Please stop it." 

"Al'ight. Anythin' else I should know?" he asked with an amused smile, and she got surprised that he'd agreed on that so easily since it was basically blowing up their cover at this point.

"No, that will be all," she shook her head with a fake smile.

But he didn't leave. Instead, he just stayed there, watching her and biting his lips, until he took a deep breath.

"Al'ight, break us up, then," he finally said.

"What?"

"Break us up and set yourself free," he shrugged.

"What about your deal and all that stuff about presenting a united front?" she asked.

He sighed and took a step closer. He didn't touch her, after all he'd just promised not to do it like ten seconds before, but he tilted his head until his lips were close to her ear.

"The thing is, I'd rather miss a deal than hurt you, sweetheart," he whispered, and her shiver resulted from the meaning of his words as much as the way he delivered them.

He straightened and handed her his car keys.

"Do your show. Whatever you want, honestly, I don't care, I just want you to enjoy your time. Do and say whatever it takes to make you feel better. Have a good time. And once you're done you can wait for me in the car, okay?"

She blushed, feeling like he was asking her to use him to get herself off, and from the way he was looking at her she was almost sure that he was thinking the same thing. And despite how mad at him she still was right now, his intoxicating proximity and this twisted kind of big gesture from him really made her want to kiss him, so she looked away not to succumb.

"One more thing," he added in a whisper, his breath tickling her lips, "You were right the other day, you deserve your share. I'll add your cut for all o' this to your next cash delivery."

"Thank you," she whispered.

One second later he was gone, and she waited for another minute before she came back to the table.

"We were starting to worry about you!" Roberto cheered her.

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry it took me so long, I had a lot of things to figure out," she casually replied while she sat down on her chair.

She then turned her face to Rio, "Oh God, there's no easy way to do this."

"Are you okay, honey?" he dumbly asked.

She strongly slapped him in the face, and she didn't even try to fake it and make it look real. It was real. He gasped and put his hand on his cheek with a mix of anger and surprise in his eyes.

"I can't believe you actually have the guts to ask me if I'm okay! Rio, I'm sorry but I can't do this anymore. I have to tell them. You asked me to come over here, and play that role of the perfectly happy little fiancée, and I'm supposed to giggle when you kiss me while all I want is to scream and push you away, because that's not who I am and that's not the truth. Roberto, Anita, he's lying to you. He's lying to me. He's lying to all of us."

Rio's eyes widened, and she could tell that he wasn't sure anymore about whether she was acting or blowing their cover for good. And she got empowered with his uncertainty, savoring the feeling of being the one in control, for once, even if she knew it was only happening because he had chosen to let her be in control two minutes before.

"Baby, whatchu—" he whined.

"Don't even start babying me!" she shouted at him, "You have to stop doing this, you can't use people like toys and do whatever you want to them. You have no respect for me. You never had. Every time I'm asking for a bit of consideration from you, it feels like I have a gun pointed at my head and I feel this tightness in my throat. I can't even breathe by your side!" she turned to Roberto and Anita with her most charming smile, "Metaphorically speaking, of course. I was a lit major in college..."

Rio used that distracted instant to try a lame defense move, "I don't get you, honey, aren't we happy together?"

She let out a psychotic laughter that scared even herself, "Oh no, we're not, we're just pretending, darling, aren't we? And the only thing you're happy with is your money, it's the only thing that matters, right? You moral compass isn't about right or wrong, it is about thief or not thief, because _stealing_ from you is, what, a crime against Rionity?"

She didn't know if Rio's clenched fists and angry eyes were feigned or not at this point. And mostly, she didn't care, because saying it all out loud felt exhilaratingly cathartic.

"Then why did you accept to marry me, huh?" he fought back.

"Because I had no choice, I needed the money!" — she vaguely heard shocked gasps from Roberto and Anita behind her but she didn't pay attention to them — "And I can't believe I was stupid enough to think you cared about me. Cause you never did, of course. It's always been a lie, wasn't it?"

Her voice broke, and she didn't even have to feign a weeping voice or sniffling, since her tears were already freely rolling down her cheeks. She basically wasn't acting anymore. She never had to since she'd meant every word of her fake-break-up speech, and it had felt so damn good. Relieving. And the way Rio was looking at her was indescribable. But now she needed to get back to some staged lies to finish the job.

"But still, I'm trying hard to make it work. And then what?" she dully started, "I just find out that you _screw your secretary_? And you buy her expensive lingerie? With our money?" she asked, raising her voice louder at each question.

Up to this point, she had been able to follow Rio's perfect understanding of all of her innuendos in his eyes, but now she could tell he didn't know where that was coming from. And neither did she. Well, obviously, she knew where that _story_ came from, but she had no idea about why it had knocked on her brain at that very moment. But she was running out of things to reproach to Rio, and maybe emotionally too shaken to keep going on that path after everything that had already been said, and she needed a reason solid enough to break an engagement.

Rio quickly recovered from his initial surprise, "It ain't what you think, honey."

"Oh you don't know what I think!" she cut him. "You know what? I'm not marrying you anymore!" she finally said, getting back to her feet. 

She took off her false engagement ring from her finger and strongly threw it at Rio's face in a dramatic move.

"No, that's not even close to enough!" she muttered before she also threw the whole content of her glass at him.

She had to admit she'd always secretly dreamed of doing that to someone, and having the opportunity to perform this on Rio made it even better. She watched him blink as the mix of alcohol and soda from her cocktail was probably excruciatingly stinging his eyes.

"You arrogant, narcissistic, little prick!" she spat at him with all the contempt she was capable of, "I hope you die alone!"

She turned her face at Roberto and Anita who were staring at them with astonishment, "I'm truly sorry you had to witness such a terrible show, really, I'm confused..." she simpered.

"Don't be, honey, we are the ones that are sorry for you!" Anita told her with watery eyes.

"Thank you, that's really an adorable thing to say," Beth whispered.

She gave Anita the sad little smile she only wore at funerals whenever someone told her 'Sorry for your loss', and dramatically turned away before she slammed the door of the restaurant. Once outside, she wished Rio hadn't given her the car key. She could have called an Uber, or Annie, or anyone. Now she had to wait for him, and she wasn't sure he'd been pleased with her little speech. After all, she'd just ruined his deal, his reputation, insulted him, and put on him her own husband's misconducts. She sat in the car, though, deeply breathing to calm down as adrenaline was slowly flowing back.

He opened the car door ten minutes later, and she couldn't decipher his expression.

"Feelin' better?" he asked her as he sat behind the wheel.

"A bit, yeah."

She rolled her eyes at him and met his gaze. The corners of his mouth were raised in an emerging smirk, and she realized that he wasn't mad at her.

"You sure that slappin' me was necessary?" he asked, his smirk fully blossoming on his lips.

She rolled her eyes. If _that_ was what bothered him the most in what had just happened, she could totally deal with it. 

"You choked me! I think you should be happy to get away with only a slap!" she reproachfully replied.

"Fair enough," he admitted, "Hey, where did that secretary lingerie shit come from, ma? That was genius!"

She shrugged with a hint of melancholy in her posture, "Just like you said the other day, I guess I'm good at making things up."

He didn't insist, and she settled in a shell of silence during the whole ride. She had revealed nothing and everything at the same time, and it made her feel both relieved and exposed. And Rio wasn't exactly giving her any clue about his state of mind. He escorted her to her front door again when they arrived and she looked at him.

"You don't have to do that every time, you know? I'm sure I'll be fine crossing the street alone."

"I know. Listen, Elizabeth..." he hesitantly started.

She raised her eyes at him, "Yeah?"

He was intensely staring at her and she took one step closer, almost hypnotized.

"I'm sorry for stealin' that kiss from you the other night, that was wrong."

Her eyes widened. She'd expected anything but that. Not that it had been pleasant, hell no, but that kiss was literally the last thing she was upset about when it came to the events of that night. She'd been more traumatized with the choking part, the gun, or the simple fact that he had brilliantly demonstrated how easy it was for him to overpower her and get whatever he wanted from her.

She frowned, "Just to be clear, you're not sorry for choking me then?"

"Nah, I had my reasons for that," he smirked.

"Wow."

"But I owe you one for the kiss though."

Well, if he insisted so much... She thought about Sara's treatment and how the past two weeks had been rough without criminal incomes.

"How about... thirty grand? It's not like you don't have them."

He chuckled, "You sure 'bout that? You know that tradin' a forced kiss for money is basic prostitution, right?"

She pouted, admitting that he had a point, before she suddenly knew what she wanted and took one step closer.

"Let me erase it, then," she hoarsely breathed.

"How?"

"With another one as good as that one was bad," she whispered.

He didn't say anything and she stopped thinking not to wonder what she was doing. She let her palm slide along his jaw until her fingers were at the back of his neck and she tiptoed to reach his mouth, barely repressing her gasp when they touched. Her lips gently caught his bottom lip at first, relishing his softness and teasing him with the tip of her tongue until he slightly opened his mouth and she deepened the kiss, meeting his tongue and grabbing his shoulder with her other hand to steady herself. Rio let out a muffled moan that thrilled her as he was kissing her back, but she ended the kiss the second he tried to pull her closer with his hand in her back.

"Now we're good," she panted, "Have a good night, Rio."

She entered the house and closed the door behind her, her body shaking in frustration, and her underwear soaking wet. But her mind kept claiming that it was just a payback for a very special debt, and that she hadn't crossed that red line between reality and pretense. Yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello denial my old friend...


	4. Set Your Limit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rio's pretexts get sillier as blood leaves his brain to reach other parts of his anatomy, and things escalate pretty high...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think happens when two people who already barely hold their mutual attraction abuse of substances known for enhancing arousal? They may not play a big con this time, but they definitely aren't in their normal state either! 
> 
> Chapter mostly written under the influence of _[Let It Happen](https://youtu.be/pFptt7Cargc)_ by **Tame Impala**.

Both her hands leaning on each side of the basin while she stared at her own reflection in her bathroom mirror, Beth was at war. With herself. Denial was a great concept but in the end she had to admit, at least to herself, that okay, maybe she'd taken a little advantage of all this and used any opportunity she'd had so far to kiss Rio, get closer to him, breathe him in. And that was not a good thing. That was too much of a risky game to play for her. Because he was dangerous, for sure, but that wasn't even what bothered her the most.

She didn't want to cheat on Dean, and she didn't need to hear Annie's opinion on that statement to be fully aware of how stupid it sounded even to her own ears. She didn't love Dean anymore, that was at least something she was sure of, and he'd done more than his share of bad things to her to not make her feel like she _owed_ him anything. But still. The fact that he had broken his wedding vows didn't mean that she should do the same to him. That would make her as much of a bad person as him, and she didn't want to do him that favor. But Rio was slowly dragging her towards that point of no-return, she could feel it, the way the intensity between them was reaching a new level each time they were playing that con game. And what scared her the most was how much she wanted to keep going on that slippery steep track, until, well... there was no need to say it, was it? 

That only left her with one option. From now on, she thought, they'd have to stop touching each other, they'd have to stop pretending things that didn't exist. So that was it, if he ever asked her to play some game with him again, she'd just say no. Fine. She nodded at her own reflection, lips pursed, feeling like she'd made her decision. And now she needed a reward drink. She'd left Rio at her front door two hours before, and she still wasn't over the feeling their last kiss had left inside of her. She still couldn't believe she had initiated something like that, with the man who'd threatened her and brutalized her only two weeks before. She must be crazy. And the way he had kissed her back, how hard it had been for her to break from that... Better not think about it. And not even _consider_ using her vibrator on this. Fantasies had to stop too. Effective immediately.

"Good," she commended her own reflection in a whisper, feeling decided and proud of herself, as if she'd just decided to quit smoking.

She only stuck to it for about five minutes though, before two bourbons had her endlessly daydreaming about Rio's face and the way he looked at her when she impressed him with something.

"You're impossible, you know that?" she muttered to herself before falling asleep on the couch, exhausted from that day's emotional rollercoaster.

But it turned out she'd been wrong to worry that much. Maybe Rio's thoughts had followed the same path hers had, or maybe he'd lost interest in her, or he didn't need her anymore, but anyway she didn't see him popping in her house for a long time after their fake break-up scene. She only saw him during cash deliveries, when she'd usually avoid his eyes. Especially after what she mentally referred to as the reward incident. After he'd told her that he'd put her cut among the counterfeit cash, she'd expected to see an extra roll of money in the duffel bag that materialized in her trunk two days later, which she saw, but not only. And checking the content of the bag with the girls around was definitely not a good idea.

"Hey, Beth, what's this?" Annie had innocently asked, her finger pointing at the small box protruding at the edges of the duffel bag.

Beth's heart had sank in her chest at the sight. Oh no. She'd kill him for this.

"Nothing!" she'd precipitately answered, zipping the bag shut, and maybe Annie was too much focused on the cash to notice Beth's distress because she had not tried to roast her about this.

But Beth had felt her cheeks burn. That bastard had added his fake engagement ring to the whole stuff, and she didn't even know what that was supposed to mean, nor what she was supposed to do with it. Whatever he expected her to do, she wasn't going to _wear_ that, absolutely no way. Which was an incidental bummer because she genuinely loved that ring. Puzzled, and frankly annoyed with the way he always managed to make her doubt his intentions, she eventually buried the box deep in her panties drawer and decidedly tried to forget about it.

And things could have ended up there, she could have kept washing cash with her eyes lowered and an annoyed expression on her face, if Rio had not done that again. Because of course he would eventually make another one of his dramatic entrances, what else could she expect from him?

She didn't even let him speak first this time.

"Please leave my house immediately," she told him, still avoiding his looks.

"Or what?" he smirked, "Gonna call the cops and explain to 'em why you keep counterfeit cash in shoeboxes?"

"I was hoping you'd be civilized enough to leave when I ask you to."

He suddenly frowned with an angry light in his eyes, "Wait, what's with the attitude? When did I do wrong to you? I let you hit me and insult me so you could feel better and now you won't even talk to me?"

She sighed, "I guess I don't have anything to say to you, it's just—"

"Elizabeth, look at me."

She hated when he gave her orders like some low-level sidekick. She wanted to be more than that, but she'd never be if she didn't start with facing his gaze. She reluctantly met his eyes, reading his anger on his face, and something that looked like a mix of sadness and disappointment. Oh no, that was bad. She didn't want to be a disappointment. Since the moment she'd met him, she'd been basically living for the moments he would tell her that she'd done a good job and look at her with praising pride in his eyes, and she'd never thought she'd give up on that too when she'd decided to keep him at physical distance. They stared at each other for a while before she cleared her throat.

"Why did you send me the ring?"

He shrugged, "You said you needed money..."

So much for her stupid assumptions about romantic gesture.

"Does it mean it was expensive?"

"Kinda?" he pouted.

"Wait, did you _steal_ this?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. 

Trying to sell stolen jewelry sounded like the best way to get caught.

He smirked, "I ain't gonna tell you 'bout all my secrets, darlin'. Plus it ain't what I came here for in the first place."

"Oh, right, what was that, by the way?" she snorted.

"You ever did smoke pot?"

The question left her puzzled. She'd expected anything but that.

"Not since high school," she reflexively answered before she wondered how they suddenly got there and she shook her head, "Why?"

He shrugged, "Have to meet with a client who's into that."

"So you're smuggling drugs too, now?"

"What did I just say? He's into it. Not me. But that's the way he does business."

She looked at him, incredulous, "Are you telling me that you agree on criminal deals while you're high?"

"Nah, it's more like networking. I introduce him to new 'friends'," he air-quoted, "He does the same for me."

"Wow, networking, really? Can't you just do that on LinkedIn like anyone else?" she scoffed.

He chuckled but he didn't answer and she crossed her arms on her chest in a defying posture.

"What do you need me for, this time?"

"Ain't just about you, sweetheart, I need a group o' people there."

"So I'm supposed to be your girlfriend again?" she replied with a biting tone.

She was ready to say no, already gathering all her arguments but as always he managed to crush her before the battle even started.

"Naaah..." he slowly replied with a sardonic smile, "You kinda broke up with me, remember? I had to recast that part. You're just an extra."

She had not expected that last low blow, and it left her with the bitter taste of defeat and unpreparedness. And it was kind of hurtful too but maybe this was for the best.

"Well, if I'm _just an extra_, I guess I'm easily replaceable. I'm afraid you should ask someone else," she finally said in a low voice.

"Did I say you had a choice, ma?" he drawled.

"Are you getting off by being such a dick?" she immediately struck back as he was growingly bugging her.

"Relax, honey, you think I ain't planned anythin' special for you to do?" he walked towards her until he got way too close, "With such actin' skills... would be a shame, right?" he whispered while the fingers of his right hand were rearranging her bang.

She stepped back under his intoxicating proximity. She didn't want to be close enough to be able to smell his scent anymore, nor feel his touch on her skin. She'd made a decision about that, and she intended to follow it.

"Please don't do that," she hissed.

He looked at her with surprise but he didn't try to get closer.

"I'll pick you up on Thursday at 2," and she got from his tone that no wasn't an option.

The kids were at Dean's mom this week, and apparently Rio knew about that too, otherwise he wouldn't have assumed she would be free on Thursday. She swallowed and silently nodded. 

He had almost reached the door when she suddenly called him back, "Wait! How am I supposed to dress up this time?"

His eyes slowly trailed up her whole body before he said, "You don't do anythin' special this time."

And that answer was even worse than on the previous occasions. Beth loved to follow the rules, and she was always ready to set them if there weren't any. So having to dress normally was way more confusing than picking up clothes for a trashy club or a garden party. Besides, on these other times she'd felt like she was more or less dressing up to embody a character she wasn't, but now Rio was somehow asking her to be herself around him, and it scared her. She spent her whole Thursday morning wondering if her attire was _not special_ enough, before she realized with annoyance that she cared too much for her taste about that half-day she had to spent with Rio. Although it wasn't exactly with _him_, as it turned out when he pulled over in front of a quite dilapidated house with her on his passenger seat. She had kind of forgotten the fact that he'd mentioned they'd go as a group, and she was definitely not ready for the dozen of people who waited for them in front of the house. Although she couldn't help but notice that she may just be a non-special extra, but she was the one he picked up and brought there with him in his car.

"Seriously, did you hire a whole company?" she rolled her eyes at him as they climbed out of the car and joined the mixed bunch of boys and girls who nodded at Rio when he greeted them.

Most of them were about Rio's age, but she spotted two or three who could be in their early forties. And some of them were indeed dressed up as what she could describe as normal, which was rather unsettling. Rio ignored her comment, though.

"Jen, you ready?" he asked one of the girls.

"Always, honey!" she replied with a smile, and Beth, suddenly getting what was happening here, gave her a closer look.

Rio had said he'd recast his cover girlfriend, and, well, this time Beth thought she had no chance to ever compete with that gorgeous younger girl in a mini-short with perfect skin and afro hair. If this was another one of Rio's twisted ways to hurt her, she couldn't say it wasn't working. But he didn't leave her much time to process.

"Okay c'mon, everybody, let's go!" he ordered with that efficient bossy tone she'd heard him have at the warehouse where he crafted his fake cash.

They all entered the house, and Beth's first impression of it was a strong smell of weed. She started to freak out. She didn't want to be there, she didn't know all of these people, and she wasn't sure about what she was supposed to do. Rio had told her to just hang around and talk to people, that he'd give her more details at the right time, which apparently hadn't come yet. She hated when he kept her in the dark, especially with his arm around a beautiful someone else's waist.

The house was literally full of people of all ages and types hanging around and smoking joints. Soon their group scattered, and although Rio was the only person she knew there, she wasn't exactly eager to follow him and witness the cute attentions Jen and him gave each other. She crashed on the first couch she ran across that wasn't disgusting nor already crowded, and someone handed her a joint. Alright. She may have lied a little when Rio had asked her if she'd ever had smoked marijuana. She had, but only a couple of times as a teenager, and she definitely couldn't say that she was an experienced smoker, nor a very enthusiastic one. But she thought that right now it might help her soothe her nerves from her anxiety and distress, so she took it. Since she was supposed to stay there the whole afternoon, she might as well fit in, she thought. She had lost sight of Rio and Jen anyway, so she just absent-mindedly looked around her, slowly detaching from reality as a slight dizziness was invading her brain.

"Hey you al'ight?" Rio asked, suddenly crashing on the couch by her side.

She had absolutely no idea of how long she'd been there, vaguely drawing upon her joint and lost in thoughts she didn't even remember.

"Yeah..." she said in a misty voice.

"You tried this one? It's good stuff. It's organic."

She looked at him with surprise, suddenly noticing that Jen wasn't around. He was holding a burning joint in his hand and he gave her a mischievous look.

"Open your mouth," he asked.

"Why?"

"You know what a shotgun is?" he chuckled.

That high-school slang-ish term carried some memories she wasn't sure she wanted to think about right now, but she slowly nodded, fascinated by the way his lips shaped around the joint extremity and the hollow in his cheeks as he was breathing the smoke in. He leaned closer and she parted her lips, waiting, until he slowly blew the fume in her mouth without touching her lips.

She was already a little dizzy and light-hearted, but she inhaled the smoke and then she suddenly remembered what smoking and being really high felt like. Oh no. It had only happened once before, and she'd been too scared of the consequences of it to reiterate that experience.

"Your turn," Rio told her, handing her the joint.

She carefully took a puff, holding the burning smoke in her mouth before she leaned forward to blow it in Rio's mouth. She didn't even try not to kiss him doing so, her tongue lazily meeting his while their lips were brushing, and he tried to respond, but he quickly had to pull off with a starting cough.

"Can't handle it all," he mumbled as an apology.

"Maybe you should think about multitasking more!" she laughed.

He met her eyes and he smiled at her, his face relaxed, and she realized she was actually feeling slightly euphoric. And horny. Now she remembered that it was the strongest side effect weed had on her. It felt as if her every nerve ending was over sensitive, and every muscle in her body was lasciviously relaxed, twitching once in a while, even muscles she'd never known she had before. And of course her inner muscles were clenching too, and Rio's proximity didn't help at all.

"Hey, weren't you supposed to stay with the recast?" she suddenly asked.

He looked confused, "The what?"

"Your new girlfriend," Beth reluctantly replied.

"Oh Jen? Nah, she knows how to play her part, she doesn't need me."

"Yes she does!" Beth vigorously nodded, "It's like the basic concept of having a cover girlfriend to hang out with her."

He frowned, "Oh yeah? Since when are you teachin' me the do's and dont's of covers?"

"I just—"

"You want me to leave?"

She sighed, "Listen, if you try to make me jealous, it won't work."

He paused.

"What should you be jealous 'bout, Elizabeth?" he smirked, and she'd never thought it could be possible, but it seemed that the drugs made his voice even smoother and more drawling than the usual.

She rationally knew that a part of her should have been hurt from all this, but right now she only felt anesthetized and happy. What could ever hurt her?

"Nothing!" she vigorously replied.

Rio's shotgun was starting to hit hard on her brain, making her slightly confused, and she added in a giggle, "Besides, I have absolutely no idea of what you're talking about!" 

She comfortably settled back in the couch, staring at the ceiling with her mind empty. She wasn't sure of what they just had been discussing, but that ceiling had _not_ been vacuumed for a long time, she observed. Oh right, she all of a sudden remembered. They were talking about Jen. She wondered if Rio and her had ever slept together. _Better not ask Rio about that_ she thought.

"Ask me 'bout what?"

She could hear his smile in his voice without even looking at him.

"Did I just... think out loud?" she asked, feeling the most embarrassed she'd ever been in her entire life.

Okay, well, not exactly. She knew this _should_ have been the most embarrassing moment ever, but right now she felt more like, nah, never mind.

Rio chuckled, "Yeah, kinda. And the answer is yes, whatever the question was."

"You don't even know what I was thinking!" she protested, blushing.

"Oh I always know what you're thinkin', honey. Especially when you say it," he added with a scrutinizing gaze.

She lowered her eyes. Whether she'd verbalized her thoughts about Jen or not, she was not going to ask now. And not knowing if he'd said 'yes' to tease her, or if it was the actual answer was... well it would probably had killed her in her normal state. In her dizzy high state, it felt more like vaguely annoying. But her feelings were too mixed up anyway and she thought she'd rather be alone right now so she exited the living room without further explanation, vaguely pretending to go to the bathroom, which decidedly seemed to be her favorite hotspot whenever she hanged out with Rio. She entered the first empty room she came across, which looked like a small study, and since she had no better thing to do she started wandering around, still under the shock of her last puff.

She had never been a real smoker. It had all started in high-school, mostly once she had started dating Dean. She didn't want to look shy nor uptight in front of his older mates, so she'd usually take a few half-puffs on their joints whenever she'd hang out with them. She'd end up slightly dizzy, but not really high, she was mostly pretending, then. She was terrified with drugs at that time, her mother had kept repeating since her early childhood that drugs and alcohol would drive her straight to prison or brothel, and she believed that at the time. Not that it had really prevented her from the irresistible appeal of Bourbon a few years later, nor had it spared Annie from basically anything abovementioned. But she did buy it at the time, so she kept pretending, and she forced herself to have a little bit of it not to take the risk to be rejected by Dean. And it wasn't unpleasant, although she mostly ended up with headache.

And then once, Dean had insisted that she went all the way through her joint, thinking she'd been smoking for real the other times, that she was used to it, but she wasn't, so it had been a shock for her body. She'd been really high for a really long time. And really horny too. They had made out on the backseat of his car, one coming straight from his dad's dealership and smelled like fresh leather. To this day she still associated that smell to the weed. And then they had had sex, for the first time. Which was also her first time. And it wasn't that she had explicitly said no, quite the opposite actually, her body had been out of control, but she hadn't explicitly said yes either. She'd just followed the spur of the moment, although Dean knew she wanted to wait at that time, she'd told him before that she wasn't ready yet. And she had known it too on that backseat, but she was stoned, and in love with him, and she was afraid she might lose him if she didn't let him have _that_. Other girls were hitting hard on him at school, and she knew he was getting impatient. So she'd let it happen. And it wasn't really a bad memory, no, just one of the earliest occurrences of the countless times things hadn't happened on her terms. But she'd never smoked again after that.

And now that she was experiencing these sensations again, even twenty years later, it felt like her body remembered it, and she could see that memory more clearly than ever. As her mind was wandering, she felt like she was simultaneously back there on that backseat from her past and leaning on a random room desk in someone else's house. Which actually felt very weird. She frowned. What was she doing here by the way?

"Everythin' okay, ma?"

She turned around in surprise. She had just left the living room like two minutes before.

"Are you following me everywhere?" she asked, giggling.

Rio's forehead folded, "You been gone forty minutes, Elizabeth, I got worried."

"Ooooh..."

That was shocking news, but she actually didn't mind so she shrugged. What she minded, though, was Rio's presence. The air had thickened since he'd entered the room, and she could feel her pulse pushing her every muscle in small contractions that drove her crazy. Sensorial memories from that time with Dean were haunting the boundaries of her conscience too, but she tried to push them away.

"Come here," she whispered, "I have a secret, but I can't tell you!"

He looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face before he carefully closed the door behind him, eyes locked with hers. Hypnotized, she watched his hand groping in his back to lock the door.

Then he smiled and took a step closer, "What is that?"

Riiiiight. What where they talking about, again?

Her eyes opened wide, "What is what?"

She started to laugh and he took another step, and then he was too close and it felt like her body was consuming itself, her nerves igniting and sending burning bolts of electricity all around her flesh. She raised one hand at his chest and her fingertips started to softly roam the fabric of his shirt.

"Aaah, Rio, Rio, Rio, Rio, Rio... I have a big problem with you, you know?" she stammered with the elocution of a kid learning how to speak.

"Hmm?"

"It's like on one hand..." she started, before her attention got focused on something else. What were the odds that she talked about hands while she was staring at her own?

"Haaaands..." she whispered in an ecstatic awe, "Hands are weird, right?"

He chuckled, "For sure they are, ma. So what's your big problem again?"

"I... I forgot!"

"Nevermind," he whispered, slowly leaning his head, "I got a big problem with you too," he added in a breath.

"Problem? What problem?" she frowned, drowning herself in his eyes as his face was getting closer.

"You drivin' me crazy."

His lips brushed her temple and slowly followed the curve of her face. Her breath broke from the touch, enhanced from her drug-induced super sensitivity, and suddenly she remembered what was bothering her so much.

"I don't want to cheat on my husband!" she let out in a hoarse breath.

He froze, his lips against her neck, but he didn't straighten. Her body was trembling, overwhelmed with a desire she could barely hold at this point.

"Al'right, what's your definition of cheatin', ma? Just set your limit and I'll play with it," he drawled in her ear, and she knew she was lost for good.

"Ooooooh, right, cause you're so goooood at playing with people limits!" she replied with widened eyes.

He chuckled his answer and she gasped when he started to kiss her neck before she tugged him closer, her hands grabbing his shoulder at first and then sliding in his back. Dean had known her limits that night. He just had chosen not to take them into account, hadn't bothered to ask. And she'd been too high, and shy, to bring that on the table. But now...

"Please don't let me fuck you!" she desperately hissed.

She didn't know how to make Rio understand how important it was for her that he respected her wish, even if it meant that he would have to stop her at some point, because she was about to lose her mind over him and she knew that she'd eventually get out of control, as she was setting the same limit she had set once, but against herself this time. And she wasn't sure she hadn't dreamed his "Al'ight", but what she was sure about was that one second later his mouth was on hers, and they were kissing with the same urge and surrender they had had at the club. And this time she didn't inquire on Jen's whereabouts.

He pressed her harder against the desk, palming her breast with one of his hands while his lips dropped little kiss along her jawbone and in her neck, and she softly whimpered, overwhelmed with the sensations. And yeah, the drugs were probably exacerbating her perceptions, but it wasn't only that. Her body had been starving for that kind of affection for years now, and cuddling her kids or hugging the girls wasn't enough to soothe such a deprivation. She'd been focusing so much on being a mother, a sister, a best friend and a loveless wife for such a long time that she had simply forgotten to also and simply be a woman. And as the years had gone by, little by little, she had lost that sensual fire, until she'd thought it had turned to ashes for good and couldn't be reignited. But Rio was the first one in years that saw her as a person of her own, and not only one end of a relationship. He'd thrown kerosene on that extinguishing bonfire and it had driven her to him like a magnet.

"Does it count if I make you come?"

Lost in the daze, her slowed brain hadn't even noticed her increasingly desperate moans under Rio's attentions, nor the decided way her hips were waving against his already hard erection. She tried to decide whether it counted or not, her body begging her for some satisfaction, and her mind, well, her mind... What was this all about, again? And the memory, appearing straight from her past, suddenly hit her.

On the next day she had reproached Dean not having considered her wish, she'd told him he'd taken advantage of the situation while he knew that she wanted to wait. "We were high, it didn't count," he'd told her then. She blinked. She was reliving her memories so vividly that she felt she was somehow living in two simultaneous realities that had the commonality of her being hopelessly stoned.

"It doesn't count. We're high," she finally whispered, and Rio let out a hoarse sigh.

He pulled her away from the desk to maneuver her until he was in her back, and she felt his right hand unzipping her jeans and slowly slipping inside her panties while his mouth sucked into her earlobe with gentle bites. She loudly moaned the instant his fingers touched her, and he pressed his other hand on her mouth to muffle her scream.

"People gonna hear you, darlin'," he whispered in her ear.

As he said so, one of his fingers started to slowly circle her clit and Beth closed her eyes under the aching intensity of her sensations. Rio's mouth was roaming her neck, his teeth slightly biting her skin once in a while, and once he'd made sure she was controlling her moans his hand left her mouth to massage her breast. His other hand still in her panties, he pushed her hips back against the desk and she braced herself on the top of it. She let out a begging whine and he slightly increased the pressure on her clit while he slipped another finger between her folds to tease at her entrance. 

Her body was strangely reacting to what was happening. In her normal state, her arousal would follow a pretty linear line eventually leading her to the point of orgasm, but in the floating haze she was currently in, it felt more like climbing big stairs, and she would suddenly reach a whole new level of intensity because Rio had whispered or done something, or more likely because a random thought had crossed her mind. 

And the pleasure hit her that way too, almost unexpected, while Rio was whispering filthy things in her ear, his fingers deliciously torturing her, and as she came he grabbed her hair, forcing her head backwards to pull her mouth to his and breathe in her sighs and moans.

He gave her a few more instants before he removed his hand from her soaked panties and she turned around to face him and kiss him properly. It hadn't been enough. Now she wanted more. She wanted to feel his mouth on her nipples and his hands on her bare skin, she wanted to feel him move inside of her.

"Fuck me," she dully asked.

He took a step back, licking his lips and considering her.

"No."

She saw his tented jeans and the desire in his eyes and she knew that he wasn't effortlessly following her terms. And to be honest, it felt exhilarating good to be desired by a man like him. He stepped back, unlocking the door, and she started to giggle, releasing some of the tension.

"What?"

"We've been here for ages, people will know anyway!" she laughed.

He checked his watch before giving her a severe look, "Elizabeth, it's only been ten minutes!"

"Oh."

"You sure you smoked before?" he softened with a smirk before leaving her there.

She took a few minutes to zip her jeans back and pull herself together, but it could have been hours since her perception of time was clearly altered. After that she stayed in the house for probably another couple of hours, talking nonsense to people she didn't know and too stoned herself to really care about what was happening, until Rio materialized in front of her.

"C'mon, let's get you home."

She followed him outside the house, and the fresh air under the porch helped her dissipate a part of the effects of the drugs.

"Are you even able to drive?" she asked with concern.

He nodded, although she wasn't quite convinced he was in a completely clean state, but she didn't want to have to explain to anyone else why she needed a ride and smelled like a whole cannabis crop. Once he pulled over in front of her house he gave her an amused look and there was an awkward silence.

She cleared her throat, mortified, her cheeks turning to full pink, "About... earlier... I... would appreciate if you never mention that in the future."

He sighed, "Okay... You remember I told you I had summin' for you to do, right?"

She gasped. She had completely forgotten about that actually, but it was not really her fault.

"You never told me what I was supposed to do!" she protested.

He rolled his eyes at her with a smirk, "Could you give me the key that's in your left pocket, please?"

Her eyes opened wide, "I don't," —she started before her hand felt something sharp on the side of her jeans— "What... When... _You_ put it there, right?"

And there was only one moment he'd been close enough to be able to hide something in her pocket without her noticing, she thought with a growing anger. Now that she was sobering up from the effect of the weed, she was starting to get upset about all the hurtful things Rio had said or done to her during that day.

"Did you play a con _on_ me, this time?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

She felt used. Humiliated. Was that moment in the study even real?

He shrugged, "I said you'd play a part, never said it would be an active one."

"Why me, then? Wasn't Jen a more obvious choice?"

He laughed and she looked at him with astonishment, "Oh you think you were the only one involved? That key went from pocket to pocket all day, sweetheart!"

She frowned, "I don't understand."

He seemed to hesitate to explain her the tricks of his business, but he finally took a deep breath.

"Okay, you may not have noticed, but there were a couple o' undercover cops in that house. That key was part of the things they were lookin' for so I had to move it out without 'em noticin'."

She felt a now well-known wind of panic blowing in her chest, "Did you bring me to a house full of criminal and cops? Now they know my face! They know I know you! Am I going to be arrested?"

He gently pressed her knee, "Nah, don't worry, ma. They're after bigger fish than you. They probably didn't even notice you. You look too normal to smuggle things. That why I wanted you there."

"Well, you could just have told me, then," she replied with a sigh.

He clicked his tongue, "Uh uh. You'd have freaked out."

There was a silence before she asked again, "Why is this key so important anyway? What does it open?"

He chuckled, "One thing at a time, darlin'. Class dismissed," he added with a slight wave of his head, removing his hand from her lap.

She knew him enough to know that she was supposed to leave his car now, but there was one last thing she had to ask.

"Was it all a lie, then?" she whispered.

"Whatchu talkin' about?" he ironically asked in a tone that highly suggested he knew exactly what she was referring to.

She blushed, "You know what I'm talking about!"

"Al'ight, maybe I just want you to say it, then," he shrugged.

"No thanks," she rigidly replied before she opened the passenger door.

She was half out of the car when he called her back.

"Elizabeth?"

She turned her face at him and met his gaze. His eyes were burning holes in her skin.

"You said it yourself. It didn't count," he drawled, the tip of his tongue suddenly darting out to lick his upper lip.

She shivered at the sight and precipitately left the car in a very confused state of mind and body, feeling flurriedly turned on from the way he'd looked at her but hurt from what he'd just said. She almost ran to her front door, and once she got inside and tried to calm down, she realized she was starving. She'd forgotten that smoking side effect too, so she raided her fridge before she went to bed, exhausted. And maybe she was still a bit under the effect of the drugs, or at least she told herself so, because she couldn't stop thinking about the way Rio had touched her, kissed her, held her against him, and she just touched herself to sleep with those images printed behind her closed eyelids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to be clear: Beth doesn't see at all her first time with Dean as non consensual. It's just an (unfortunately still too common) example of grey zone. 
> 
> Oh and if anyone was wondering, Jen is 'Pill Beth' from S2E6!


	5. I'm Just Curious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Could they be more annoying?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last update, but your patience is rewarded with an almost 9k biggie!! 
> 
> Massive thanks to [s_t_c_s](https://archiveofourown.org/users/s_t_c_s) who beta-ed and proofread this chapter for me (I'm such a huge fan, if you haven't read her fics yet, just go for it, it's amazingly gooooooood!!) ❤️

It took Beth a few days to recover from the effect of the drugs. And a few weeks to be able to stand less than a mile away from Rio without wanting to crawl out of her own skin. She'd even called in sick on the first two drops after her stoning experience, endlessly briefing Annie and Ruby until they had both reminded her they were functional adults who could handle this without her. They hadn't even suspected that Beth was faking her illness and had spent an hour on her makeup, giving her cheekbones a feverish glow under deep purple rings around her eyes, and yellowing her complexion.

But even a bad cold couldn't last forever, so she eventually had to come back to work and get to see Rio, hand him bags of cash and feel their fingers brush when he'd take them, feel the weight of his gaze on her. He had the decency to not tease her about what had happened during their last escapade, though. The girls would always be there, preventing any alone time between them, but she wouldn't even catch that self-satisfied light in his eyes or the amusement in his smirk he had had after their kiss at the club. Maybe he'd been shaken too. Maybe this had gone too far even to his own standards, she thought, because it clearly had according to hers.

She'd been thinking about it. Like a lot. And not in a fantasy way, for once. Fine, not _only_ in a fantasy way. The thing was, she could keep pretending as long as she wanted that she hadn't done anything harmless, that she had excuses for all of it, and most importantly that she hadn't cheated on Dean the way he had cheated on her, but deep down she knew that she already had. Because she wanted to. And no matter whether she'd factually crossed that line or not, her mind and imagination were already way beyond that checkpoint. And willingly letting Rio touch her, kiss her, take control over her body like that, wasn't that cheating already even if they hadn't technically fucked, not to mention that this last statement required a pretty strict and narrowed definition of fucking? Even worse, she had to admit in a secret corner of her mind that she didn't really feel guilty about it while she'd expected to be ashamed of herself, while she _should_ be ashamed of herself. But there was no point in rubbing salt in the wound since things seemed to have gotten back to normal, and Rio kept acting like nothing had ever happened, which suited her for once.

A few weeks later, she was even able to look at him without blushing hard nor thinking about his breath in her neck and the burning of his lips on her skin, and she decided one night that she needed a reward for this, for moving on and being able to act normal around him. She didn't have the kids at home so it would be the perfect occasion to treat herself. With a bubble bath. It had been _years_ since she had had one and she giggled at the thought. She gave it the whole nine yards, with perfumed candles, relaxing music playing and a glass of bourbon on the bathtub edge. And the bottle on the floor, just in case, because she _deserved_ this. She ecstatically sighed when she entered her bath, and she closed her eyes, letting the hot water envelop her body like a soft blanket, relax her muscles and warm up her skin. She took a sip of bourbon, and allowed herself to stop thinking about normal everyday things such as the kids, the household, or the amount of cash she still had to wash for the week.

And of course his face was the first thing that popped in her mind once she'd cleared it from its daily worries. She lazily considered the idea of touching herself on that, her hand undecidedly wandering around her upper thighs, but everything was slow, and warm, and her mind was glued in a beatific somnolence that felt similar to when she'd been high. A shiver or pleasure ran along her spine at the temperature contrast between the warm bath water and the cooled bubbly lather against the skin of her upper chest. That whole thing was definitely a great idea, she mentally commanded herself. It felt so good that there was literally nothing in the world that could stop her from enjoying it.

"Good Lord, ma, I been lookin' for you everywhere!"

She startled with a scream, abruptly fluttering her eyes open while her hand involuntarily let the bourbon glass smash on the bathroom floor ceramic tiles. Rio was watching her with his usual smirk, fully dressed, and she suddenly became aware of how totally naked she was. She rolled her eyes at the tub, checking on the lather which was fortunately still thick enough to hide the sight of her body, before she glanced back at him, and narrowed her eyes.

"_What_ are you doing here?"

He shrugged, "Got summin' for you."

"No I mean, what are you doing _in front of my bathtub?_ Could you please leave and give me a few minutes of privacy so that I can join you in the living room?" she asked, trying to stay calm.

She couldn't believe that he would even ruin _that_. He'd never let her catch a break, even when she was on her own, she thought, infuriated.

Rio smiled with a naughty light in his eyes, "Nah... I'd rather watch the show."

"Get out!"

"All right, all right!" he theatrically raised his hands up and backed off in a fashion suggesting that she was overreacting before he left the bathroom and she sighed, already annoyed before they'd even actually gotten a chance to talk.

"So," she started a few minutes later as she joined the living room after having carefully stepped over the sharp remains of her glass, her hands pulling at the tie knot on her robe, "Why are you here?"

He looked at her and she felt his gaze scanning her whole body, lingering on her damp hair and her mouth before he met her eyes.

"Roberto's mom passed away last week," he announced.

"Oookay," she unsteadily replied, unsure of where this was going, "That's sad," she added.

She honestly couldn't care less, but she still believed in politeness and manners. He considered her for a few more seconds with the beginning of a smirk at the corners of his lips, waiting for her to break the silence again and say what he wanted to hear.

"You came all the way here to tell me that?"

She could tell he was enjoying this, putting on a whole show to make her wait, and he took his time to finally drop, "We goin' to her funeral next Sunday."

No. This time it was off-limits. She'd been kind enough to pretend that she hadn't noticed how silly his occasions to spend time with her were, but that was too much.

"Rio, that's ridiculous. I didn't even know her!" she protested. "And the last time Roberto saw me I had just broken up with you, I can't be your date again!"

"Oh you ain't my date," he replied. "Roberto personally invited you," he added before he dropped a large creamy envelope with a black border on her kitchen counter, and Beth's eyes widened.

"I... How... I mean, just tell him I can't go."

"Well, that would be kinda rude, don't you think? The guy's _mournin'_ his mama," he mischievously replied.

Of course he knew how much she worshipped manners and education, and declining a personal invitation to a funeral without a solid reason wasn't part of them. And she highly doubted that Rio was a reason solid enough. A dreadful thought suddenly crossed her mind.

"Aren't you invited?"

Going there without him was probably the only thing she craved even less than going there with him.

He raised one eyebrow, "Oh yeah, I am, don't worry ma, I won't let you grieve in peace."

She didn't like the tone with which he'd told her that, nor his grin as he'd delivered it. She could sense that she somehow wouldn't have fun at all at that funeral. Which wasn't exactly what funerals were for, she internally pointed out.

"I still don't get it, I thought Roberto wasn't working with you anymore after you got dumped by your fiancée in front of him?" she asked with an ironic smile.

"You know, business is business," he evasively replied. "By the way, the whole thing is happenin' upstate, it's a bit of a drive so I'll pick you up in the early mornin'. Is 8 fine for you?"

This was the last drop in Beth's glass of anger. First she'd hated how he had had the audacity to interrupt her bath. With one of the silliest excursion pretexts she'd ever heard. Without letting her know anything about the business side, which was the only part she found interesting. And now he was telling her that she could say goodbye to the idea of enjoying her Sunday morning late sleep without the kids?

"Are you actually asking or just pointing out the fact that I don't have a choice anyway?" she snapped at him.

He smiled at her with an impressed look on his face, "Good! You a quick learner, ma!" he scoffed.

"Oh just leave already!" she retorted with an annoyed wave of her head.

"See you on Sunday, darlin'," he smirked.

She didn't get any chance to see what happened immediately after, but as he walked past her on his way out, he somehow managed to pull at the one strand in her robe tie knot that untied the whole belt, and she let out a shocked gasp, blushing and immediately grabbing the sides of her robe to cover herself, although she didn't need to do so as he hadn't even bothered to watch. She heard him chuckle, proud of his provocative power demonstration, and he left her boiling with frustrated anger in the middle of her living-room.

At least, the dress code was pretty obvious this time. She wasn't sure she had that many black clothes in her closet, though. Except for jeans, but she would definitely not attend a fancy funeral with jeans on, although she was ready to bet that Rio would. Of course she owned a few black corporate suits she wore at the dealership, but the blouses of these were mostly white and besides she wasn't sure it would be appropriate. No, based on what she had already seen of Roberto and Anita's social circle, she had to wear a dress. And she happened to own one especially designed for such an occasion. It was the dress she had worn at Dean's father funeral. She recalled that it was perfectly cut and really elegant on her back then. Hence she got a huge surprise when she tried it on. Oh. Right. Dean's dad had passed away while she was going through her post-partum depression, and she had... kind of lost a lot of weight at that time. That she regained later. Anyway, the dress was still gorgeous on her, only tighter, revealing her curves in such a sexy way that she blushed at her own reflection. There was no way she would go on a day-trip with Rio dressed like this, it looked like she _wanted_ him to hit on her. That dress was literally the fashion allegory of a booty call.

On the other hand, she thought... On the other hand, her closet didn't provide any better option, and she was already freaked out at the idea of having to go shopping. She hated having to buy new clothes on short notice, because finding something that matched both her personal taste and her body type was hard and she couldn't afford losing a whole afternoon on this. So. Seemed like she had to go with the dress, but maybe she could find a black shawl to attenuate the aggressive seduction of her attire.

Rio's eyes slightly widened and his gaze appreciatively ran up and down her body when he picked her up but he didn't make any comment about her outfit, though. She was clearly too sleepy to strike back if he had, and she was convinced that this was precisely the reason why he hadn't teased her about it. Making fun of her was probably less appealing if she wasn't in a state to reply or get pissed off. She fell asleep for the first couple of hours of the drive, and he let her do so.

He couldn't help but devilishly comment with a drawling "Rest in peace, ma," when she'd started to sink into sleep though, and she couldn't help but smile at his deviant humor. She hated how nice Rio could be with her sometimes. It would make it easier for her to hate him if he kept being despicable all the time.

He woke her up after a while with a gentle pressure of his hand on her arm, and her eyes fluttered.

"Got a few things to talk to you 'bout before we get there," he explained.

She sighed. He always waited until the last moment, when she had no choice but to go ahead anyway, to tell her the things she wouldn't like. And she had an intuition that this time wouldn't make an exception to that general rule.

"You remember we broke up, right? Slappin' my face, throwing cocktails at me, the whole nine yards?"

"Huhuh?"

"So you're supposed to hate me. Just be as annoyed with me as you can and you'll be fine. I guess it won't be a hard part to play for once!" he chuckled and Beth pursed her lips.

Because the thing was, it _would_ be the hardest part to play. Because he annoyed her as much as he attracted her, and she was at a point where she couldn't handle any of it anymore. She would have been more than happy to play such a role even a few months ago, but now, she would have killed to get to be Rio's fake girlfriend again, to dissipate at least a bit of the tension, to feel his touch, even if was just for the sake of acting. But there was nothing worse than him asking her to pretend she hated him. Which she did by the way. But not like that.

"And FYI I told Roberto I'm trying to win you back, so don't act surprised if I make a move."

So much for thinking this couldn't get worse.

"Am I supposed to give in?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

"No."

She'd have sworn there was something cruel in his smirk, and she bit her lips. Was he even aware of the torture it would be for her to have to turn him down and pretend she hated him while she could barely stay in his proximity without having filthy thoughts crossing her mind?

"Oh and one last thing, honey. Roberto's in trouble with the authorities these days, so there will be a few cops attending too. They'll probably ask you 'bout how you know me and Roberto, what happened during that dinner last time, things like that."

She instantly woke up from her annoyed internal laments, _"What?"_

"Oh don't worry, ma, it's nothin' as long as we tell the same story."

This time she really wanted to hit him.

"Rio, I can't show up with you in some place investigated by cops! Are you asking me to lie to them? This is perjury!"

"So what? You can't lie to a police officer?" he quietly asked, his eyes on the road.

"No!" she vigorously replied.

He chewed his bottom lip before he slowly and suggestively replied, frowning, "So... we _did_ screw on that kitchen table of yours? Cause I ain't rememberin' it although I'm pretty sure I wouldn't forget summin' like that."

He gave her a quick, lustful glance, and she blushed.

"That was different!" she protested.

"Yeah? And why is that? Cause it was your ass you were savin' then?"

"I... It's not..." she stammered, her eyes wide open, before she decided to change the subject, "Are you going to hide stuff on me this time?"

His eyes scanned her body in an appreciative way that would have made her blush if there still had been space available for more blood in her cheeks, before he commented, "Not with that dress, ma. Although you could definitely hide a whole family of raccoons in that bra."

"What's the real reason you need me there for, then?" she asked, decidedly ignoring his comment about her bosom. "And don't tell me it's because of Roberto's sensitive filial heart, because it's _always_ about work with you!"

"I told you. I want you to talk to the cops 'bout Roberto. And to tell them exactly what I need you to tell 'em."

"What does this even mean?" she frowned, suddenly alarmed from the serious look in his eyes.

"Roberto needs an alibi for summin'. That dinner we broke up? That's his alibi. We just change the date."

"Aren't they going to check that?"

"Not if they have a legit lady like you swearin' it happened on that night, honey. Cops got a lotta work to do too," he smirked.

"So that's why you're taking me there," she half-asked.

"That why Roberto invited you," Rio imperturbably replied, and once again Beth thought he'd fooled her, lulling her into thinking that Roberto truly wanted her at his mother's funeral.

Which had never made any sense. How stupid was she!

"But he's gonna act as if he did, though," Rio added. "The two of you need to pretend you're close friends in front of the cops."

She started to find the whole thing hard to follow.

"Does Roberto know I never was your girlfriend?" Beth suddenly asked.

"No."

"So, I'm supposed to play your ex-fiancée who's playing Roberto's BFF?"

Rio smiled, "You got it."

She suffocated, "How can I even..."

"I'm sure you'll be fine. You good at this shit, ma," he told her with no trace of teasing in his voice this voice.

She gave up at protesting, knowing that it would be useless, and she chose to focus on the details Rio gave her about her imaginary relationships with both himself and Roberto. By the time Rio was done filling her in, they were pulling over in a parking lot.

"The ceremony's happenin' in that church over there. You just go," he told her.

"Aren't you coming with me?" Beth almost pleaded, hating to hear the slight shaking in her voice.

Despite how annoying Rio was, knowing that he was around whenever they'd go on work trips like this, that he could intervene if things got out of control, was somehow reassuring. Going there alone actually scared her.

"I'll arrive later. Roberto knows I talked you into all this, but to everyone else we barely speakin' and you came here by yourself," he explained, and she had to admit that her story would make more sense to the cops if it didn't seem like they had _discussed_ their respective versions of it, but still.

"How long?" she asked.

He exhaled and his fingers gently pushed her hair back behind her ear, "You'll be okay, Elizabeth. I promise."

And again, she hated the way he made her achingly _need_ him, hated how nice he could be at comforting her even when she knew that he wasn't doing this for the sake of her well-being but only for his business. She left the car on unsteady legs and anxiously entered the church, casting nervous glances around her when Anita suddenly materialized out of nowhere to enthusiastically hug her.

"I'm so glad you came!" she sort of exclaimed in a low voice and Beth winced.

It wasn't that she wasn't the hugging type, she definitely _was_ with the girls for instance, but just… not with strangers.

"Well, thanks for—"

"Elizabeth!"

Roberto appeared in the wake of his wife, arms wide open, and Beth sighed, swallowing her wince back to pull on a compassionate face. Roberto's body type could have been politely described as massive, and Beth felt like she'd hit a wall when he hugged her, chasing the air from her lungs.

"Thank you for coming!" he said with a broken voice.

"I'm really sorry for your loss," she managed to answer once she'd caught her breath back. "She was such an inspiring woman," she added, with absolutely no idea of where that came from.

Roberto nodded, staring at her, and she couldn't tell from the look in his eyes if he'd been acting out of grief or if he was just incredibly good at his close friend role.

"You should come to the front row with us for the ceremony," Anita said, and before Beth could react, she took her arm and dragged her towards the front of the church.

At least, all Beth had to do during the ceremony was to sit and gently pat Roberto's sobbing shoulder once in a while. It gave her complete latitude to look around her, and she recognized a few people from the garden party, but she didn't catch any sight of Rio. She tried to guess who the cops were, but since she miserably failed at this she decided to focus on the details of the story she'd have to sell. She barely listened to the relatives' speeches, until she thought that maybe Rio had pushed his twisted perversion to suggest to Roberto that _she_ made a speech about the deceased, and she spent the last half-hour of the ceremony shaking at this idea. However, Rio had apparently skipped that humiliating possibility since the ceremony ended without her having to embarrass herself further, and the guests then gathered in the cemetery next to the church for the burial.

Beth was finally starting to feel comfortable in this new environment, so obviously Rio chose to show up at this moment, and Beth's heartbeat rate unreasonably increased. She was still standing next to Anita, which unavoidably brought Rio to stand in front of her with a saddened face as soon as he finished paying his respects to Roberto and his wife.

"Hey," he softly said, pressing a kiss on her cheek, "Good to see you here."

His lips burnt her skin and completely set her on fire, and it took her all she had to pull on an annoyed face and step back from his proximity with a loud "Ugh!" at him. He gave her a sad judgmental glance, somehow reproaching her to not put their personal dispute aside on a day like that. She glared at him but as the coffin descent was starting, they both stood quietly side by side.

It wasn't before the wake reception that things got tricky again. As they were all gathered in the gorgeous hall of what was presumably Roberto's family house, Rio suddenly leant over her to whisper in her ear in a perfectly audible way, "Imma fetch you a drink."

She shook her head, rolling her eyes, but he was already gone when she replied, "I can do this myself, you know!"

"Isn't he sweet?" Anita intervened.

Obviously she'd heard Rio's indiscreet whisper, which was probably the actual reason he'd put on this little show, Beth realized.

"I think you should give him a second chance," Anita added out of the blue.

_Did I ask for your opinion, bitch?_ Beth thought. She couldn't believe it. Why did everyone always feel entitled to rule her life for her, even her imaginary life?

"Yeah, I don't think so," she coldly replied as she garnished her plate with a few shrimps from the buffet.

"I mean, I know that what he did to you was terribly wrong, but we all make mistakes. A long time ago, I cheated on Roberto too, but he forgave me and it was the most beautiful gift he could give to both of us."

Beth almost choked on her shrimp. Didn't Anita have _friends_ to share such private confessions with? Besides, she wasn't exactly in the mood for being lectured about infidelity forgiveness. Not right now, not in a moment when she was seriously considering the idea of committing one. Not after she had decided that she wouldn't forgive Dean's because it was the only way for her to find the strength to break ties with him. And on top of it, not with someone who thought that Rio, among everyone else, was the cheating one. Obviously Anita couldn't have any idea of Beth's real personal situation, but still, it was a highly disturbing thing to hear.

"Well, I guess everyone's different when it comes to morality," she replied in a more prudish tone than she'd intended.

"For what it's worth, I think that you were great together," Anita insisted, and Beth winced, knowing that a part of her couldn't really disagree with Anita on this one.

Rio came back, interrupting their small talk to Beth's huge relief. She wasn't ready to discuss Rio's supposed boyfriend merits for the next half-hour. He handed her a glass of Champagne with a _look_ that sent shivers down her spine, and she had to force a condescending wince on her lips and an icy "Thanks," out of her throat. If he was planning on spending the day hitting on her with that repentant look on his face, she wouldn't make it until the end of the reception.

But apparently, Rio had too much fun on his side to stop this, and for some unknown reason Anita had decided to play cupid with the two of them so she had to endure a full afternoon of unsubtle allusions from the latter combined with the annoying attentions of the former every time he emerged from a conversation with other guests he happened to know. She was seriously considering the idea of hiding in the bathroom for the rest of the reception when she heard someone calling her name, well, the name Rio had given to everyone there and that she hadn't heard in anyone's mouth since probably her high-school teachers.

"Miss Marks!"

The man's general look really fitted in the assembly, and she wouldn't have guessed he was a cop if it wasn't for the colorful badge he was for now showing her.

"I'm Detective Harris, from the local Police. I'd like to ask you a few questions if that's okay with you?"

She immediately pulled on what Rio sometimes called her PTA face, "Nice to meet you Detective, sure, no problem, but... shouldn't we do this in your office?"

"Oh, it's not an official statement, Miss Marks, just a small friendly conversation," he said with a knowing smile, and Beth suddenly felt like she'd accidentally fallen in an episode from _Columbo_, which wasn't exactly a reassuring thought.

"How long have you known Mr. Di Falco?" he immediately asked.

_Here we go_, she thought.

"Oh we met about two years ago, he's a close friend of my ex-fiancé, and we really bonded, like, you know, sometimes you just click and it's there, right? My aunt was like that too, naturally gifted at being social with people. Everyone loved her, and guess what, at her funeral, they needed to rent a whole reception hall because the house wasn't large enough for all the guests! And the ceremo—"

"Got it," Harris cut her, re-focusing their talk with a bored look on his face.

She played this game for the following half-hour, flooding the policeman under useless details of her imaginary life, blabbering nonsense about people she'd never met and randomly focusing on totally irrelevant little things such as Rio's favorite brand of shampoo. She even purposely changed a few details in the story Rio had made her learn.

"That's not what your ex-fiancé told me earlier!" Harris noticed with surprise when she mentioned their supposed first date anniversary and the size of the engagement ring he'd given her.

"Bhahaha, what a surprise!" she snorted. "No offence, sir, but you know how bad men are at this. Ugh, I can't believe he doesn't even remember our anniversary!"

Identical stories might have seemed suspicious, she'd thought.

"Of course," Harris commented absent-mindedly.

She was exhausted when the Detective finally left, but she knew that, putting aside the fact that he now probably saw her as a verbally incontinent spinster, she hadn't raised any suspicion about Roberto's alibi. From the other side of the room, she met Rio's eyes and he slightly raised his glass at her intention with a warm look on his face along with a small nod towards the entrance, and she understood that he would take his leave soon and wait for her in the car so they'd leave the reception separately. A few minutes later, she lost sight of him, and she gave him an extra half-hour before she extracted from Roberto and Anita's inner circle where she'd been listening to tedious anecdotes about the deceased.

She had a strange feeling in her stomach when she climbed in the car, both thrilled and anxious to be finally alone with Rio and allowed to talk to him normally. He raised his head as she climbed into the car and gave her an impressed look when their eyes met.

"What?" she asked.

"Got echoes of your lil' talk with Harris. You were amazing today, Elizabeth," he drawled, and she tried hard not to smile from ear to ear, although she couldn't help but beam at him.

"Really?" she timidly asked.

"Really," he nodded.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, the air thickening with tension between them, and she just knew that he wanted to kiss her just as much as she wanted to kiss him in that instant. But neither of them moved and then the moment was gone and they both looked away. Rio started the engine and Beth comfortably settled in her seat, lost in her thoughts and exhausted from the emotional rollercoaster of the day.

The rain started to fall after maybe an hour of driving, and as it grew heavier and heavier, Rio had to slow down. Beth let out an annoyed sigh, wishing he'd instead driven as fast as he could. She couldn't wait to be at home, far away from Rio's physical proximity, far away from these disturbing games and aching temptations. Besides, Dean was supposed to bring the kids in the early evening as her week was about to start, and the simple idea of having them at home made her impatient. The rain was intensifying, though, and a few minutes later, she had to squint to distinguish flashing lights and police vehicles in the middle of the road. A police officer pulled them over, and her body stiffened with a shiver when Rio stopped the car. Please, not now, she thought, terrified, although Rio didn't seem particularly tense.

He opened his window, and the comfortable warmth inside the car vanished when a gust of cold rainy wind immediately blew through it. The police officer leant his head toward them.

"I'm sorry folks but the road is closed from there. Bad weather conditions," he told them while casually chewing gum, and Beth sighed in relief. At least he wasn't after them!

She tilted her head towards the driver side to meet the policeman's eyes, "How... how long?" she asked for the second time of the day.

"Can't tell you that, mam. There's a little tornado on its way, so I guess at least a few hours, maybe the whole night. There's a motel one mile away on this side," he pointed to the left, "but you should hurry 'cuz that's where everyone's going."

"Thanks for the tip, bro," Rio cut short.

He closed the window before turning the car back, and Beth rubbed her hands together to warm herself up. She was pissed-off at the elements for not letting her go home, at Rio for dragging her first in this mess, but mostly at herself for not being able to pull herself together. It was nothing after all, just a few hours of delay, no big deal, she tried to convince herself. Rio didn't say anything during the short drive to the motel, and she thought that maybe he wasn't pleased either to not get back home on time. Maybe he had plans of his own, and she suddenly realized that she had absolutely no idea of what Rio's life was like outside of work and the moments they spent together.

Rio pulled over in the motel parking lot, and despite the fact that it was still early, of course there was only one vacant room. She shook her head with annoyance, thinking that nothing could possibly go more wrong.

"I'm not going in a motel room with you," she said.

"You gonna freeze to death in that car, ma," he pointed out.

"I don't care!" she spat with a defying look.

And well, it wasn't probably only him she was so angry at right now, but he was clearly paying for all her accumulated frustration. He considered her for a while with something that looked like surprise in his eyes, trying to fathom her fury, before he slowly licked his lips.

"Al'ight. Just for the record, I won't touch you if we share a room," he took his time to stare at her whole body before he added with a smirk, "Ain't really interested anyway."

"Well that's kind of rude!" she immediately protested.

He cocked one eyebrow, "Oh you want me to be interested?"

She rolled her eyes with the most annoyed expression on her face.

"Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Doin' what?"

"Putting me in all those situations? Why are you torturing me like this?"

He laughed, making her reach a whole new level of exasperation, "C'mon honey, I can do a lotta things, but I can't command storms yet."

"Did you _know_ there would be a storm?" she insisted.

He looked at her and for the first time he seemed to pity her and her distress.

"Nah, not really... I mean I knew they'd announced one, but it wasn't supposed to cross this road. I thought we'd be fine, yeah? It wasn't a scheme to put you in my bed, honey."

His face was back on teasing mode, and he added in a low voice, "I wouldn't _need_ one, anyway."

She blushed, wishing she could hit him for what he'd just said. Was it that obvious? He didn't allow her enough time to find an acid reply to throw back at him, though.

"Now it's up to you ma. You freeze here or you come inside, that's your call," he said, climbing out of the car.

She watched him walk away through the window, and she sighed with discouragement. It felt freaking cold in the car, and she hadn't exactly picked the warmest clothes to wear. She surrendered with a wince of mortification and she followed him, defeated and hating herself for it.

The room was actually nice and clean, though, and its warmth was comforting. She blushed when she let her eyes lie on the bed, and she headed straight to the armchair in the back of the room. Although she'd had no choice but share a room with Rio, it didn't mean that they would have to share the bed.

"I'll stay there if you don't mind," she coldly told Rio once she got seated.

He gave a surprised glance at her resting spot choice but he eventually shrugged.

"Well, do whatever you want, ma. You hungry?"

She hadn't even realized it was more or less dinner time, but she couldn't swallow anything yet.

"No, I stuffed my face at that wake buffet all afternoon long," she sighed.

"Cool. Imma get some sleep," he announced.

"Fine!" she moodily replied, her eyes focused on her phone screen, decidedly trying to forget his presence.

When she raised her head, barely a few seconds later, he was already in his briefs.

"What are you doing?" she choked.

He raised an innocent eyebrow, "Why you care? I thought you weren't into me anyway."

"I'm not," she rigidly replied.

"Then you shouldn't be watchin'," he taunted her, tongue wetting his lips and she felt herself blushing.

It wasn't that she had _wanted_ nor _intended_ to watch, not at all, but she just couldn't detach her eyes from him, from the perfect smoothness of his tanned skin, from the tattoos that adorned the back of his arms and his left shoulder in addition to his neck, from that body she'd been dreaming about for so long now. She reluctantly looked away. Ten minutes later though, her exhaustion fell on her and she found herself struggling to repress her yawns. She let her eyes linger on the bed and the shape of Rio under the sheet. At least he'd been enough of a gentleman not to spread in the middle of the bed, and he'd actually left plenty of room for her on the other side. _What would be the harm?_ she thought. After all they'd both —fairly hypocritically, she had to acknowledge that— stated that they were not interested in each other, and she was almost certain that Rio would rather die than make the first move. Hence as long as she behaved properly, _as she intended to,_ her prudish inner Mrs. Medlock reminded her, everything would be fine. She muffled a scoff. How ridiculous was she! They were both responsible adults, fully able to share a bed while keeping their underwear on.

And so she crawled on the bed and slipped under the sheet, still fully clothed though. Might be safer, she thought. She considered the idea of putting her coat on in addition to the rest, but she shook her head. That would be ridiculous, even for her. She heard Rio slightly chuckle at the bouncing of the mattress under her weight but he didn't open his eyes. She rigidly lay on her back, her arms crossed on her chest, and she closed her eyes although she was clearly too restless to sleep despite how tired she was. She realized that she was _afraid_ to fall asleep and lose control. What if she woke up with him spooning her, or worse, finding herself spooning him? She suddenly heard him snort and she reopened her eyes to find him staring at her.

"What?" she asked with annoyance.

"Are you a fuckin' vampire to be sleepin' like that?" he asked.

"Like what?"

"Like fancily dressed with your arms crossed like you rigid already? You want me to nail you a coffin too or you good?" he sarcastically replied.

She sighed, "Why do you even care?"

"Al'ight. Can I turn the lights off then?"

She realized she had forgotten to turn them off when she'd climbed in the bed and she nodded.

"Mhh."

He obliged, and Beth's life turned into a nightmare. She didn't dare to move since she was too afraid to touch him, even by accident. She could hear his breath and feel the warmth of his body in her immediate surroundings and it was all-consuming. She'd spent the whole day trying to ignore the bolts of electricity his touch was sending along every nerve in her body, even worse, she'd had to pretend these delicious feelings annoyed her. Well, they _did_, in a way, but not like that. Now she was oversensitive to his presence and that was a big problem. And soon she got aware of a bigger one. She was totally getting overheated under those sheets with her clothes on, and she was growingly suffocating. After ten minutes of this literal hell, she decided to take her dress off, but she'd have to shimmy out of it with tiny moves if she wanted to stay unnoticed.

"Why you wrigglin' so much? You touchin' yourself or what?" Rio's grumbling voice taught her a minute later that she wasn't that discreet after all.

"God no! I'm just making myself comfortable." she replied with widened eyes in the dark.

Since he'd spotted her, she thought that she might as much allow herself some ampler moves to quickly finish removing her dress, and she had to admit that she was much more comfortable with only her bra and panties on.

"I mean, you can touch yourself if you wanna, I don't care." he mockingly added and she resisted the urge to hit him.

Anything involving touching him was off-limits right now. But he was grating on her nerves with that.

"Oh yeah? Even if I'm not thinking about you while I'm doing so?" she provocatively replied.

"Who _else_ could you be thinkin' 'bout, sweetheart?" he drawled with endless cockiness, and she could tell from his voice that he was wearing his trademark sarcastic grin.

She was looking for a sharp reply to throw back at him when her phone rang from the other side of the bed. Crap. Must have been Dean. With all that had happened, she had completely forgotten to text him about the storm holding her back on her way home. And she knew that the normal thing to do would have been to ask Rio to hand her the phone, like a polite and civilized person, but she was still pissed-off with everything, and especially his comments about the way she pleasured herself, so she decided to bend over him and grab her phone herself instead. And somehow, she wasn't sure if it was because she'd miscalculated her move in the darkness, of maybe she'd slipped on the sheet when she'd shifted, but she eventually lost her balance and ended up bracing herself on his chest instead of landing on the other side of the mattress as she'd planned. And once again, she knew that any normal civilized person would have immediately withdrawn her hand with an apologetic mumble, like it was nothing, but she just... left her hand right there. Stroked the warm skin of his chest under her palm, relished the feeling of the muscles rolling underneath the softness, and a small whine escaped from her parted lips. She could hear that Rio's breath was a little erratic too.

"Thought you weren't interested." he hoarsely taunted her with a strangled voice.

"I'm not. I'm just... curious." she managed to answer, biting her lips.

"Fair enough." he breathlessly whispered. "Can I get to be curious too, then?"

And before she could answer _that_, his hand landed on her hip, and she gasped. She felt his palm sliding up on her bare skin, roaming her ribcage and escaping in her back right before it was supposed to hit the curve of her breast. Beth was hypnotized. She couldn't move, overwhelmed with the feeling and afraid she might just crash onto him if she tried to even blink. Rio's hand kept trailing its way up until he stroked the soft skin of her bare shoulder and she shivered. She felt him oddly shift beneath her, and suddenly there was light, and she met his gaze, his blown pupils mirroring her own desire. She bit her lips, unable to breathe at the sight of him lying on his back with her basically on top of him.

"Elizabeth..." he croaked, and she let out a frustrated moan.

His hand slightly pulled her towards him, inviting, and she felt her elbow flexing almost against her own will, bringing her face closer until they were breathing the same air, or at least they would have if they had actually been able to breathe at all. She managed to stay still though, her lips only a few inches apart from his, her eyes drowned in his gaze, knowing that he wouldn't make that last move, wouldn't give her that excuse. Because here was the thing, this time she couldn't hide behind any lame pretext she'd usually use to cross the line without any guilt. This time it would be for real and they both knew it, and God, she wanted it so badly. But it had to be on her, because he always did that, always brought her to this point where he had achieved 99 percent of the work himself but let her perform the last step. She didn't need to check to just know that he was already hard for her as much as she was wet for him, and all she had to do for all of this to become real was this slight tilt down of her head. There would be no stopping point after that, because she knew that the second their lips touched she'd instantly lose the remaining control she was for now barely keeping on herself.

Her eyes left his to stare at his mouth and she saw his lips part. Breathless, she licked hers and slowly got closer until their lips brushed, sending goosebumps all over her skin, and...

Her phone rang again. Dean. She'd completely forgotten he was the reason she was about to kiss Rio in the first place. She stiffened, straightening her head and coming to her senses.

"I... I should really take that," she stammered, and an intense blush instantly covered her cheeks at the realization of what just had almost happened.

She rushed out of the bed as if it were on fire, and she immediately grabbed the ugly-brown extra blanket that covered the bed to wrap herself in it, suddenly unwilling to let Rio see her in her underwear. She picked-up the phone and isolated in the small bathroom, giving herself an illusion of privacy.

"Yeah?" she whispered.

"Beth, where are you? I thought you'd be home by now, and then I heard about this _storm_..."

Dean's voice was worried, but it felt light-years away from her state of mind. She remembered she'd told him she'd spend the day visiting a former PTA friend who'd moved upstate, but Dean had probably thought she'd be already home by now. Which she should have been, so...

"Oh God, I'm sorry, I forgot to call you with all this mess... They blocked the road because of the storm, so I'm waiting, but I'll drive back as soon as I can. Are the kids okay?"

She could hear their voices along with the sound of the TV in the background.

"Yeah, well, I'm relieved you're not stuck _in_ the storm, you know. Listen, I already brought the kids back to the house, so is it okay if I sleep here? I don't know when you're coming back, so..."

"Sure," she softly said, "You can take the guest room upstairs. Or go for the bunk bed in Kenny's room, whichever you prefer."

"Dope! Take care of yourself, Bethie."

"Thanks. Have fun with the kids."

She hung up while a growing feeling of guilt invaded her. How could she have been so close to cheating on the man who was worried about her being caught in a storm? She went out of the bathroom to discover that Rio had turned the lights off again and was seemingly quietly resting on his side of the bed. Maybe the moment was gone for him too. She tiptoed across the room and silently lied back on her side of the bed, still wrapped in the blanket.

She closed her eyes, trying to forget the mix of guilt and fire that was consuming her and focus on her sleepiness. And she almost managed to fall asleep, when she suddenly felt his hand on her, and then his mouth, and next thing she knew he was inside of her and she had no idea of where her underwear was gone but she didn't care because the pleasure was indescribable, and his mouth was on hers and she couldn't stop moaning his name with every move of his cock, and then...

"Elizabeth!"

She woke up in a startle, her eyelids fluttering and slowly focusing on a fully dressed-up Rio gently rocking her shoulder in the dim light of the room. It took her a few seconds to realize she'd been woken up by the very man she was just having a sex dream with, and that him knowing about _that_ was literally the last thing she wanted to see happen. The memory of her dream made her intensely blush and she prayed for Rio not noticing it in the half-darkness.

"The road's open. We can go," he told her with a smirk, and she'd rather have killed herself than asked him if her dream had been vocal.

"What time is it?" she weakly asked.

"Quarter to four."

"Oh."

She managed to exhume her dress from somewhere under the sheets, and committed to the inconvenient task of putting it on without letting any inch of bare skin out of the shelter of the blanket. She was fully aware that she was acting ridiculous but she couldn't bear the idea of letting him see anything more than what she might have involuntarily given him already.

He had the decency to keep his mouth shut, though, and they didn't exchange any word during the last ninety minutes of the drive back. Beth was so mortified anyway that she would probably have needed pliers to slacken her jaw if she'd wanted to speak.

The grey light of dawn was bringing its unreal effect to the neighborhood when he pulled over in front of her house. There was no light inside and it seemed like everyone was asleep. She knew she was supposed to get out of the car like right now, she'd been longing to come home for hours, but she didn't move, not immediately at least. There was a strange feeling of unfinished business standing in the air between them that both attracted and repulsed her.

"So," he started, watching her with burning eyes that made her mouth instantly dry.

She swallowed, waiting. He unbuckled his seatbelt and leant over her, cupping her jaw with one hand and bringing his face closer to hers until she forgot how to breathe. She half-closed her eyes and parted her lips, waiting for him, but he stayed still until she met his eyes again.

"You ain't gonna do it, are you?" he whispered.

And God she wanted to make this fucking last step so much, but she didn't want it to be so easy for him, she didn't want him to think that all he had to do to set her on fire was to touch her, even if that was true. She didn't want him to win, especially after every torturing cruelty he'd inflicted to her during the whole trip. She didn't want to do this with her husband, asleep only a wall away, after he'd told her to take care of herself. So she took her time to breathe normally, and she quietly smiled before she answered.

"No. You told me not to give in."

It took him a few instants to process what she'd just say and remember what she was referring to, and a cruel grin blossomed on his lips.

"Yeah... In which case..."

His other hand landed on her lap, drawing a surprised gasp out of her, and slowly slipped under her dress, making its way up. She slightly parted her thighs to give him access, her breath already accelerating while his fingers started to tease her through the thin fabric of her panties. She let out small frustrated whines, begging him to touch her for good and he obliged, increasing the pressure on her clit. She had no idea of the trail of thoughts that could have lead him to react like this to her turning him down, but she couldn't care less. She closed her eyes and bit her lips, very much aware of his face so close to hers, and she tried hard not to moan until she couldn't keep it anymore, squirming against his hand and desperately moaning as her arousal was growing.

And all of a sudden his hand and face were gone and she felt him opening the car door on her side. When she opened her eyes, he was sardonically grinning at her from the driver's seat.

"Now I'm sure that you'll think 'bout me when you finish yourself!" he answered her furious look, before he added, "It's still early, if you're quick you can get a few more hours of sleep. Sweet _dreams_, darlin'!"

There was a mocking light in his eyes, and she suddenly wanted to bury herself in the leather of the seat until she'd disappear forever.

"Asshole!" she spat at him, feeling a too familiar burning on her cheeks.

Humiliated and exasperated, and okay, incredibly horny too, she climbed out of the car and slammed the door without even looking at him. As she reached her front door, she wasn't sure anymore of who had won, and she felt that she'd totally lost a few minutes later, when she silently finished what Rio had started — she'd meant not to in a last pride attempt, but she just hadn't been able to resist. However, one minute before she fell asleep, she thought that maybe talking about victory in a contest of who would end up the most frustrated was irrelevant after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dean is the worst cockblock in history. 🙈🙈 Don't worry, they'll definitely hook up soon!


	6. The Lead Actress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to canon-ish :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's official, apparently I suck at writing short chapters...🙈🙈 Hope you don't mind!  
Upping ratings to E 😉

Beth didn't get a lot of extra sleep though, because the house turned into a joyful circus of Monday morning laughter and screams from half past seven. Yawning, she hurried in making the kids breakfast, and after a minute of hesitation, she cooked an extra portion of pancakes for Dean. He'd been acting really nice the day before, changing his plans because of her, and she thought she could go easy on him for that. She just hoped that seeing both of their parents at breakfast wouldn't be too confusing for the kids.

"Thank you," he smiled at her when she handed him his mug of coffee, and she smiled back at him, out of politeness, and also maybe with the relief to see that they were finally able to behave like adults around each other, which had barely been the case lately. And it was probably a remaining habit from twenty years of daily routine suddenly triggered from her unusual kindness, but then he leaned over her and softly kissed her cheek. She recoiled in surprise, and his brows immediately furrowed, "Oh I'm sorry Beth, I just thought—".

"No, no, it's okay," she mumbled, shaking her head and trying to bury her embarrassment under a sweet grateful smile, "Thank you for staying with the kids last night."

"Anytime, Bethie," and this time, she had to look away from the repentant gaze he'd been giving her since the very day she'd kicked him out of the house.

She spent the whole breakfast in self-flagellation with her shame and guilt from the night, although nothing had happened, she had stopped it before it escalated — well, no, _Dean_ had stopped whatever was going on, without even knowing it. And now he was so nice to her and the kids, unsuspicious of her whereabouts of the night, so trustful that it made her feel awfully dissimulative even if she didn't feel like she owed him anything. But it made her realize that as much as she enjoyed playing dangerous con games with Rio, she somehow also relaxed in this safe, familiar family routine. It felt nice, not to have to worry about not dying within the next two hours, she thought. By the end of the breakfast, she was feeling so lost and guilty that when Dean headed towards the front door she softly called him.

"Dean?" he turned back, looking at her expectantly with an expression of surprise, "I owe you one for last night. How about I take you out to dinner on Friday night? We could talk about the arrangements for the kids," she explained.

Dean frowned at first, before he slowly smiled to finally beam at her, "Yeah, I'd love that."

She watched him leave with a sigh. Being nice was the least she could do, after all they were still married. Oh, and they really needed to address some kid-related issues raised by their new separated lifestyles. And, well... it wasn't that she still loved nor wanted him anymore, but. She had to face the truth at some point. She badly needed to get laid. And soon. Weeks, turning into months, of unfulfilled foreplays with Rio had awaken a thirst in her body that she couldn't extinguish only by herself anymore. And as a result, _anything_ would set her on fire now. She hadn't recoiled from Dean's chaste kiss because it embarrassed or disgusted her, no, it had just reminded her body of another kiss on the cheek, one that had sent shivers along her spine, it had _aroused_ her. And it wasn't that Dean was her first choice, ew, definitely no, but he was a socially acceptable one at least, and also an accessible one. One who wouldn't fill her eyes with tears with a sarcastic comment right after sending her on the edge. One who wouldn't make her feel weak in the very middle of her utmost empowerment, feeding her most secret feelings before cruelly stamping on them. And so, after a nice dinner and a large amount of drinks, maybe, if she closed her eyes and focused her thoughts hard enough on something — or more likely someone, who was she fooling? — else during... maybe she could... Ugh. She wasn't sure that this was her best idea so far. She could always decide about _that_ later, though. It was still worth letting herself that possible opportunity.

To her huge relief, she didn't hear from Rio on the following days. She was still mad at him for his last-minute humiliation, among other things, and it was too soon for her to be able to talk to him without experiencing the mix of strong anger and irresistible attraction that caught her each time she'd spent too many hours by his side. He did came by, though, on Thursday night. She'd just hung up with Judith who had agreed on taking the kids for the week-end, which would let her with an empty house on Friday night. _Just in case_. She'd been re-thinking the whole dinner with Dean thing, and after a few bourbons, it didn't seem that illogical. It might actually be a good thing, they had never really tried to reconnect with each other, and maybe Anita wasn't _that_ wrong, maybe Beth had been a little harsh on Dean's mistakes after all. And she definitely hadn't even given a second chance a shot, so... But all those thoughts instantly vanished the moment she found Rio casually settled in her couch as she was roaming the living-room, cleaning up the mess that the kids had left before going to bed.

"Ain't no bubble bath day?" he innocently asked with feigned surprise.

She froze and blushed at that memory, her heartbeat rate defying any acceptable medical standard.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, hating the way her voice was trembling with the thrill of unspoken feelings.

"Been thinkin' 'bout you. A lot," he drawled.

Her mouth instantly dried, her head dizzy with sudden heat, and she looked at him with expectation while she managed to stammer, "You... you did?"

He smoothly jumped on his feet, and she had to fight the urge to touch him, "Yeah, got a 'lil question to ask you. Hubby's car dealership, does it make good money?"

She blinked, and she could literally hear her brain's loud "Huh?". She'd been expecting anything but that.

"Well, yeah, I mean more or less, but..." she automatically answered, her eyes fluttering, before she came back to the purpose of his visit, "What's your point?"

"I'm lookin' for an investment opportunity." he mumbled under his breath as he wandered around the room, his eyes apparently focused on her wedding picture still on display up one shelf.

A pouring rain of cold disappointment suddenly sobered her up and she bit her lip not to let her chin tremble with imminent sobs, internally cursing herself for being so helplessly starving for any sign of interest from him. And based on the cruel smirk that was now adorning his mouth, it was obvious that he'd been purposely misguiding her about his intentions.

"I'm sorry, what?" she blinked in incredulity, chasing her emergent tears with the quick fluttering of her eyelids.

"Think that Carman would be interested?"

She almost snorted. Dean hated Rio. But he did had troubles at making good incomes at the moment, so...

"Why don't you ask him that yourself?" she quietly replied with a daring look, and he nodded, unimpressed with her attempt to look tough.

"Nah, you talk to him. But I think I should come by with my crew, give it a look, see if it's worth the effort. Tomorrow sounds good to you?" he added with a grin.

She frowned before she slowly replied, "You know, I think that it won't look shady at all to have a whole tattooed gang showing up at the dealership in the middle of the day."

He chuckled, "Yeah... Why don't you let me handle this, huh? So tomorrow's fine?"

"I guess..." she breathed, unsure of what was happening right now. "Although you'll have to be gone by the end of the afternoon," she suddenly remembered.

"What, you got plans or summin'?" he asked.

"Actually I do. I'm going out. With my _husband_," she negligently dropped in the conversation, and she saw his jaw slightly clench.

"Good for you," he drawled, and she gave him her most innocent smile before he left.

Surprisingly, Dean didn't react as bad as she'd thought he would when she called him and told him about Rio's interest in the dealership. To be honest, she didn't leave him much of a choice, pretending that his visit wasn't really open to negotiation. And, well, the dealership was short on cash, so... Dean swallowed his pride back, already thinking about the buying opportunities Rio's money could provide. She didn't know if Rio coming over meant that her presence was requested at the dealership, but since Dean wasn't exactly Rio's biggest fan, she thought that she might as well be there, just in case things escalated. And, hem, she wouldn't exactly pass on any occasion to _see_ him, make _other things_ escalate too, although she knew that she'd probably end up hurt or frustrated, or more likely both, but she just... couldn't help it.

On the next morning, after having brought the kids to school, she didn't spend much time in front of her closet. She knew what she wanted to wear this time. Although she technically didn't _work_ at the dealership, it was still her territory. _Her_ kingdom. And she intended to look as professional as possible, be the boss in front of Rio, even just for once, so she chose a corporate suit with a cream adjusted blouse.

Rio wasn't there yet when she arrived at the dealership. She could tell from Dean's expression that he was a little bit tense, but she didn't know if it was out of his visceral disgust toward the idea of working with Rio or under the guidance of his taste for easy money, making him worry that Rio might eventually renounce to invest.

"Do you know when he's supposed to come by?" Dean asked, and she shook her head with a sigh.

"I guess we'll find out soon enough."

Beth was nervous, her stomach twisting in a mix of thrill and apprehension each time she thought about Rio. She had the feeling that there was something else there, the investment opportunity sounding like a pretext for sorting out unfinished business standing between them on another level. And only the two of them. Dean had nothing to do with this. She busied herself to forget her anxiety, wandering around the cars for sale, greeting the salesmen and the handful of customers already here, and checking that everything looked appealing despite her limited interest in the matters of cars selling.

She was mentally rearranging the decoration in the showroom, sighing at the thought that Dean had definitely no skills at decorating a place when she heard the latter yelling in her back from approximately three cars away, "Hey, Bethie, your friend is here!"

She turned back and suddenly froze. Well, Rio might have been a little bit exaggerating when he had told her that he'd come with his crew, unless a crew could consist of only one person. A person whose waist he was lovingly holding. Jen. She winced, trying to ignore the way her heart was sinking in her chest at the sight. Obviously, he was taking his revenge for the way she had turned him down in his car and provoked him with her night out with Dean. He wasn't the forgetting kind. Nor the forgiving one, she thought.

She composed a welcoming expression on her face and joined their small group, "Hi! I'm Beth," she added towards Jen.

"Jen," the latter answered with a charming gaze, although Beth knew that Jen couldn't ignore who she was, but they both had to pretend that they didn't know each other in front of Dean.

Her eyes then met Rio's and he gave her a deep look which instantly isolated them from the rest of the world, setting their power struggle in its own space and time. She thought that maybe he was being a little over-confident, looking at her like this in front of her husband, but then she realized that it didn't matter since Dean was literally drooling at Jen. Which was kind of... annoying, but. She'd process that later. She could have spent the rest of her life trapped in Rio's challenging gaze but she forced herself to root back in her skin and she cleared her throat, reluctantly looking away.

Rio smirked before he started his show, "So, funny story, I lost a stupid bet and now I'm supposed to buy _this precious sweetheart_," — he squeezed Jen's waist, pulling her closer and kissing her hair while she giggled, and he gave Beth a warning side glance while doing so that made her bit her lips and roll her eyes in frustration — "a new car, so I was thinkin', maybe you could show us around?" he asked Dean.

Dean strutted, "Of course!" and the three of them walked away.

Beth deeply breathed several times, trying to untie the knot that had inexplicably formed in her chest when she'd seen Rio petnaming and cuddling Jen. She sighed. Rio's glance over Jen's hair had been crystal clear that he would have no mercy in his provoking revenge. This was going to be a dirty battle.

Fortunately or not, that was a matter of interpretation, she didn't get a chance to be in his immediate surrounding for a while, since Dean spent a considerable amount of time showing them the dealership, and especially the Corvette he was currently obsessed with. At some point though, Rio pulled away from their small group, leaving Jen to whatever technical explanation Dean was giving her, and he walked closer to Beth, pretending to be examining one of the cars on display.

"Finding what you're looking for?" she icily asked.

He chuckled, "Nah, this place is shitty, ma, no wonder you need to rob groceries stores for a livin'! I mean, who would buy a neon 'Vette with ostrich interior?"

"Oh, we can make good sales!" she immediately struck back, although she had absolutely no idea of how selling cars worked, but at this point she was so pissed-off that she would probably contradict him whatever he'd say.

He raised one eyebrow with an interested look on his face, "Yeah? Prove it."

"How?"

He looked away, thoughtful, "If you can sell twenty cars by the end of the day I'm in," he said, before he added with a mocking smile, "Bethie."

That last blow infuriated her probably even more than everything else. She hated the meaning Rio gave to that specific petname, hated the person it symbolized to him. And of course he knew that pushing that button would fuel her rage for winning and drive her crazy enough to accept any challenge.

"Deal," she replied, provocatively biting her lips and staring right into his eyes.

"Cool."

His gaze gradually turned from daring to lustful and he slowly licked his lips with the tip of his tongue before he briefly nodded and walked away to join Jen and Dean.

Beth immediately briefed any salesman she could find, bribing them with vague promises of employee of the month bonus, but soon she thought that it wouldn't be enough since they were barely ten to fifteen potential customers currently wandering in the dealership. So she texted her PTA chatgroup with the announcement of an exceptional and private Black Friday event at Boland Motors, and also asked Annie and Ruby to relay the message, knowing that people were always more inclined to buy whenever they felt like they were part of some privileged circle. It took a little less than an hour for the first customers to show up, but then the flow never seemed to stop.

At first Beth simply watched Dean's team do their job, but then she saw Carol, one of the PTA moms she knew, so she joined the outside parking lot to say _Hi_, and also to walk the furthest away from Rio that she could. Carol had brought a friend with her, who started to question Beth about the cars on display, and before she knew it, she was basically trying to sell her one. And although Beth had not intended at first to set deals _herself_, soon she got surrounded by PTA acquaintances asking for advice.

It was actually a pretty entertaining activity, she thought. Selling car _was_ fun, in some way. She enjoyed trying to guess her interlocutor's psychology, looking for the triggering argument that would set the deal, assessing how harsh they would be at negotiations. At first she tried to re-use Dean's selling techniques, but soon she realized that the customers she was talking to, who were mainly women, mothers often, had no interest in how many horsepower roared under the hood, and neither did Beth. But, unlike Dean, she spoke these women's true language. Her selling rate considerably increased when she let top speed certifications aside for baby seats considerations.

She had almost forgotten the initial reason that had lead her to engage in her selling activity when she suddenly caught the sight of Rio and Jen at the other end of the parking lot. They were facing each other, holding hands, and she suddenly found it hard to breathe.

"So, do you think that we could pay by installment? I'll check with my husband but I think we could go for a six-month schedule..."

But Beth wasn't listening anymore. Hypnotized, she watched Rio lean over Jen and kiss her, tenderly, and her ears rang at the sight, her vision blurring.

"I'm sorry, I have to go," she precipitately stammered without even looking at her customer, "Just check with my husband about that... thing you were talking about," she added, with no idea of what that woman was saying like ten seconds before.

She walked across the parking lot, almost running until she reached the shelter of the dealership building. Tears were already rolling down her cheeks as she climbed the stairs, ignoring the people she'd cross despite their tentative interactions. She needed to be alone. She needed to breathe. Her initial target had been the bathroom, but as she walked past Dean's office, she noticed that it was empty and she rushed into it. Despite its partially glassy walls, she was well-protected from anyone's sight there. She pressed her forehead against one wall for several minutes, trying to control her breath and her urge to cry. She hadn't expected to break-down like this, hadn't thought it would hurt so much to see Rio with someone else.

And as usual, she started to spiral down from there. Coming at the dealership had been a stupid idea, she'd _known_ there would be no good from this, and yet she'd kept fantasizing and thinking about him, as if a man like him would ever give her a second look, as if she could interest him for anything more than the opportunity to pin one more name on his hook-up tally, cross out a line on his to-do list. He didn't care about her, never had. It wasn't like he didn't have plenty other options up his sleeve, and...

"You okay, ma?"

She quickly wiped her tears before she turned to look at him, wondering if he was gifted with some kind of sixth sense telling him to check on her every time he'd gone too far in his little torturing schemes, and she reproachfully replied, "As if you even care!"

He silently swallowed but he didn't answer and she watched him as he walked closer, so much closer, until he caged her against the wall with his arms, overwhelming her with his presence until she languidly exhaled. She hated the effect he had on her, and she hated even more how incapable to resist she was, even when he'd just hurt her. They were staring at each other, and maybe it was because he'd just caught her crying, obviously because of him, but there was a softness in his eyes that she'd never seen before. His right hand left the wall to gently push her hair back behind her ear, his fingertips caressing her temple in a soothing motion before they rested against her cheek and she shivered, her eyes fluttering under the sensation. They stayed still for a while, until she'd calmed down enough to control her voice when she spoke.

"I thought you didn't want to hurt me," she muttered, remembering the last time he'd caught her crying before offering her to get her revenge and fake break-up with him.

"I don't."

She bit her lips and briefly lowered her gaze before coming back at him.

"Why are you here, then?"

"Oh, I think you know," he lowly drawled with a serious expression on his face, his eyes deeply staring at her.

His fingers slid in her neck and he came even closer, his body slightly pressing against hers and his head leaning down until his cheek brushed hers, his breath tickling her earlobe. She softly gasped at the contact of his stubble and her hands almost automatically came at his hips, pulling him closer, as if her own body wasn't even listening to her brain's orders anymore.

"You see, these movie directors, they always end up fuckin' the lead actress," he whispered in a hot breath.

Pressed against her as he was now, she could feel the heat emanating from his body and smell his cologne. She blinked, desperately trying to cool down with an out-of-tone comment.

"I... I'm not sure that's an appropriate thing to say. You know, I've read articles about sexual harassment in Hollywood and it's not—" she started with a slight shake of her head.

He straightened his head so he could meet her eyes.

"Were you born with this ability to ruin the moment or is it summin' they teach you at PTA meetings?" he cut her with an amused smile.

"I... I don't... Do you know what they do once the movie's over? They make another one. With _another_ actress," she counter-attacked, throwing his metaphor — and her insecurity — back at him.

"Not all of 'em, ma. Some people have a muse."

"What about Jen, then? Isn't she your upcoming movie star?" she angrily asked, still not over the memory of the two of them kissing on the parking lot.

He slightly recoiled so there was a thin layer of air between them now and his brows furrowed.

"I don't give a shit 'bout Jen."

"Oh yeah? Did she know that when you stuck your tongue in her throat?" Beth couldn't help but reply, flooded with a burning jealousy which, she internally admitted, was honestly completely inappropriate given the situation.

"Hey, first of all, there was no tongue involved," he protested, "and... fuck, it ain't even my point!"

"What's your point, then?" she asked, still hurt from the way he could apparently switch from one girl to another like it was nothing, like they weren't human beings with _feelings_.

He stared deeply in her eyes, as if he were scanning her soul and she suddenly felt naked under his gaze.

"What's holdin' you back, Elizabeth? Why are you keepin' your vows to Carman?" he eventually whispered.

The straightforwardness of his question caught her off-guard and she blinked. 

"It's... none of your business," she stiffened.

He chuckled, muttering under his breath, "Ain't like you still want to fuck that dude, though..."

She provocatively raised her chin, "Well, maybe I do!"

This time he openly laughed with so much self-confidence that she would have ripped his head off for that, "Elizabeth, c'mon..."

He wordlessly stared at her for a while until she finally made a decision and she let out in an surrendering sigh, "I don't want to be as bad as him."

He frowned and took a step back, considering her, his teeth chewing his bottom lip, until his face suddenly illuminated with an epiphany.

"Oh... So he's the one who—"

"Beth?"

They both turn around in a perfectly synchronized motion. Dean was standing in the doorframe, looking at them with confusion, and Beth had no idea of how Rio had been able to move so quickly but he was now standing at a fairly reasonable and appropriate distance from her, his arms crossed on his chest.

"What's he doing here?" Dean said again.

"Just clearing a work misunderstanding," she effortlessly lied with honey in her voice, as if she had never been desperately crying five minutes before, "So we're good with fifteen percent, now, right?" she added, turning her face at Rio's who slightly nodded.

"Well, tell him to leave. This is my office," Dean said with an annoyed move of his head.

Beth was about to open her mouth but Rio spoke first, "Al'ight," he shrugged. He gave Beth one last look, and whispered in a breath so that only her could hear him, "_Not as bad as him_... Man, _everythin_'s a competition with you!" 

On his way out, he slowed down when he walked past Dean and he condescendingly patted his shoulder, "So, lingerie, huh?" and by the time Dean frowned, Rio was already far gone.

"What did this even mean?" Dean asked.

She innocently raised her eyebrows, "I don't know."

Dean shook his head, his mind already on something else, "He didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"He's interested in investing. He said that we have enough sales potential for him to provide the initial capital," Dean announced with a proud smile.

A little thrill ran through Beth's stomach at the news. She had lost the sales count since she'd broken down, but Rio's interest meant that she had completed his challenge, it meant that he was acknowledging that she'd done a good job. And this... made her feel happy, and proud, despite everything. The memory of Rio and Jen was buried deep somewhere in her belly, where it would hurt later, but not for the moment. What mattered now was that she'd had fun at selling cars and as it turned out she was killing at it, which felt so good, and so did sharing a friendly moment with Dean. She smiled at him.

"So we did it?"

"We did it, Bethie," Dean replied with a grin.

"One more reason to have fun tonight and celebrate, then," she said, and Dean nodded with a knowing gaze, although Beth was unsure of who she wanted to celebrate with, in the end.

"Do you want me to pick-up the kids at school and bring them to Judith's?" she offered.

"No, I'll do it, you just enjoy your time and I'll come pick you up at seven?"

She smiled at his kind proposition, "Fine."

At first, she'd thought that she'd only change clothes at home before going out with Dean, but she eventually ended up preparing herself much more than that. She wasn't sure that this was technically a _date_, to be honest she had fairly mixed feelings about it, but she felt empowered from the decisive part she'd played in saving Dean's dealership, and her professional credibility in front of Rio, despite his assholy — and successful — attempts to make her jealous. Her success made her feel incredibly good in her own skin and she just wanted to expand that inner glow to her outfit, put herself first in a sexy way and beam in self-confidence. So when she exited the shower, she picked her matching set of turquoise underwear that she loved and one of her favorite dresses, the front buttoned burgundy one with white dots that shaped her body so well, along with matching pumps.

Dean whistled in a very immature way when she climbed in his car, and she couldn't help but miss the silent but appreciative look that Rio gave her every time _he_'d picked her up for something. That wasn't enough to quench her empowerment though, so she mentally shrugged and didn't say anything.

"You know, I didn't think that he had a girlfriend," Dean suddenly broke the silence while he was driving.

Beth rolled her eyes, unwilling to think about Jen right now, "What difference does it make?" she shrugged.

"I don't know, I thought he was hitting on you. But she's... She's something!" Dean said with an envious tone and Beth suddenly wished she could rip his head off.

She wanted to reply with something sharp about the fact that he didn't even try to hide his attraction for anyone but her anymore, throw Amber at him, but a wave of discouragement hit her. Jen _was_ something. There was absolutely no reason for Rio to chose Beth over her, no matter whatever bullshit he'd told her in Dean's office.

"By the way, if we set this deal, I'm going to need you to give me his contact so that we can discuss business terms," Dean manly added, and she could swear that she'd heard his brain completing his sentence with an implied _'among men'_.

Beth fought hard to repress her snort. Dean negotiating with Rio? That sounded like the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. What was that, a biggest dick contest?

She slightly stiffened, "No. I'm his contact."

"Well, I don't like the idea of you interacting with a guy like him. He's a criminal, Beth." 

"And so am I, Dean!" she replied with annoyance.

"This was my father's dealership!"

"And you bankrupted it. _I_ am the one working with Rio, _I_ brought you that investment opportunity, so _I_ stay in the loop. End of discussion."

She settled back in her seat, sighing, and she heard Dean mumbling his disagreement. He was still a bit moody when they entered the restaurant and Beth did her best at fighting her annoyance. She'd forgotten how childish and petty Dean could be sometimes, but she put her most charming smile on, still willing to give the whole thing a try. She almost scoffed though, when he suggested that they ordered a bottle of Chardonnay. Did he know her at all? One bourbon would definitely not be enough to soothe her nerves, but that was a start at least. She chose to avoid any dealership-related topic at first, giving Dean some space to calm down about Rio, and they talked about the kid arrangements, but there wasn't so much to argue about so they got it all figured out before they had finished eating starters.

"So," she finally started after an awkward pause in the conversation, "How do you feel about all this? Are you going to accept his offer?"

Dean winced, "You know what I think of this, Bethie, but if we sell enough cars with it, it could be... yeah it could be worth the temporary trouble."

"_Temporary?_" she asked, squinting.

He scoffed, "You're not telling me that you're planning on permanently working with criminals, Beth, are you? So I was thinking, maybe a couple of months, until I get the dealership back on its feet."

"So that you can make bad economic decisions about it again?" she acidly retorted.

"Do you _want_ to keep working with this guy?"

She sighed, "No, I mean, I was just thinking that it could finally allow us to get our heads above the water, start some savings accounts, you know? And it's not that easy to _stop_ working with people like that... Plus I have some new ideas to improve the customer service and raise our profits!" she added with an excited smile, "If we start catering more towards women, I think we could really increase our sales." 

The day she'd spent selling cars in order to forget about Rio and Jen had indeed led her to reconsider Dean's marketing techniques, and if working with Rio had taught her anything, it was that she had good business intuitions, so she felt self-confident enough to pitch her ideas to Dean. She tried to develop all the features she'd been imagining, but she could tell that he wasn't really listening to her, vaguely annoyed with her speech and more interested in the menu or the quality of service.

"So what do you think?" she finally asked.

"I think that you're awesome," he said, and her heart jumped in her ribcage, because Dean had never acknowledged her skills outside the house before, and if he was finally able to see her as who she was for real, then maybe... "But," he started again, and her glowing pride crumbled.

He talked to her for a while about the cute faces she cut on the kids sandwiches with some kind of weird obsession for the way she was using a cookie cutter in that purpose, and each word that was coming out of his mouth felt like a hand pressuring her head a little more under the water until she'd suffocate. Rio's little choking session a couple of months before felt like a good time in comparison. Dean didn't reject her ideas because they were bad, just because they were _hers_, because to him, she was nothing but the little house-elf who raised his kids, and something broke inside of her at the thought. She could barely listen to him anymore, because a part of her was slowly drowning under the weight of his judgment.

"We both have our own, you know, superpower. Why would you wanna wreck that?" Dean concluded his little speech, obviously proud of himself.

Beth wanted to cry. Or to hit him, or both, she wasn't sure anymore. It had only taken him five minutes to destroy she fortress of self-esteem that she'd spent months building in the mirror of Rio's gaze.

_How do you do that? — You good at this shit, ma. — You were amazing, Elizabeth._

Rio's voice was resonating in her head, and she lowered her gaze to not let Dean see the contempt in her eyes. _Why am I even doing this?_ she thought, _Why did I even try to protect you? And from what?_ How stupid she'd been for thinking that Dean could change, that she could give it another shot! And oh God, why did she even do him the favor of turning down what could probably have been the best sex she'd ever have? Now it was probably too late for that, she'd missed her chance, and Jen... She ordered another bourbon that she immediately gulped down, the words spinning in her head. And then another. And another. And another one when they left the restaurant and continued the evening in a bar. _Their_ bar.

Beth was drunk already, and the daze was the only thing that held her from punching Dean's face. She felt like she was facing a clown sitting in front of her, and she watched the excitement agitating his stupid face with a detached indifference, a part of her still trying to heal the wounds he'd opened in her self-love. He hadn't even noticed her distress during the past hour, too busy eating or peering at the waitress's bosom.

That was the moment when she saw _him_, or at least she thought she'd recognized his features, sitting at one of the bar stool. Alone. And despite the physical and sensorial distance between them, the indistinctive noises of music and loud conversation, it seemed like he had felt the weight of her gaze, or heard the increase in her heartbeat rate, or maybe he was just stalking her for a change, waiting for her to spot him, because his eyes suddenly met hers, and she saw him articulate a "Hey," in the distance. His eyes instantly dragged her into the memory of the afternoon, when he'd stood so close to her, and suddenly she wanted nothing but Rio's presence in her immediate surroundings, his heat, his breath, his touch, far away from the box Dean was irremediably trying to lock her in. She gave the latter another look, and the realization was brutal. _You don't deserve me_. She didn't care anymore about being better than him, because she didn't care anymore about _comparing_ herself to him. He wasn't worth it. She wanted to scream that at his face, but instead she just politely smiled.

"I'll be right back," she softly said.

She barely heard Dean's "Okay," in response, since she was already making her way through the crowd. She wasn't totally _sure_ that Rio was there. Maybe her imagination was starting to go off the rail. She was drunk, sad and frustrated, so. She could use a moment in the bathroom. If locking eyes with Rio across a crowded bar was indeed an illusion she had lulled herself into, then a few splashes of cold water on her face might be a good idea. And, well, if he wasn't an illusion, if he was indeed there, right when she desperately needed him, needed to see in his eyes the reminder of the person he once saw in her, then, maybe...

As it turned out, he wasn't an illusion. And he'd gotten the hint, since he entered the bathroom barely ten seconds after her and quietly leaned against the door, waiting and looking at her through the mirror until she turned back to face him. Illusions are not that persistent, she thought. Eyes locked with him, she slowly came closer, until they breathed the same air, and she knew that even then he was daring her to make the last step. It would be so easy for him to kiss her right now, and they both knew that she would immediately give in, but he wouldn't give her that. And neither would she. Challenge time was not over. Her hand groped in his back to lock the door, just like he had done when they'd been high in the weed house, before she stepped back, and she saw his jaw tick in annoyance, as if he was thinking that she'd been luring him in there for nothing. But she had something else in mind.

Coming back to facing the basin, she slowly pulled her dress up, revealing her upper thighs, and she stood there, waiting, performing a last step in the shape of an invitation, forcing him to make the conclusive move. And this time he couldn't turn her down, not after he'd seen her tears and told her that he didn't want to hurt her, swore that Jen didn't mean anything. _Prove it_, her whole body seemed to dare him, _Show me_. She melted with a small whine when she felt his palm at the back of her thigh, gently squeezing the flesh and pressing her against him, his lips burning in her neck and his hand around her breast. She'd been longing for him since the last time he'd touched her like that, when they were stoned, and her body relaxed against his, enjoying every second of it even if she knew that they didn't have much time in there. 

Rio probably knew that too, because soon his hand pulled her panties down, and she shivered at the thought that they'd never been that far, her whole body trembling with a feeling that she could only have expressed as _'Finally!'_. He bent her over the basin and she whimpered in anticipation when she heard him unzip his jeans, his eyes locked with her through the mirror. She felt him gently pressing at her entrance and as he hesitated, giving her an interrogative look, she pushed her ass back against his crotch, urging him to take her right there. That seemed to be the only confirmation he needed, because one second later he smoothly slid inside of her and she was so wet that he didn't have to push, even the slightest.

She lost her breath when he entered her, biting her lips to control her urge to scream and she kept staring at him fucking her in the mirror when he started to move, reading on his face the reflection of her own pleasure. His thrusts were slow at first but she slightly waved her hips in frustration until he got faster and deeper, drawing hoarse sighs from her throat as he watched her with a daring look on his face. His fingers were pressed deep in her hip and she muffled her moans, overwhelmed with him but not giving up on their staring contest, until she just couldn't repress it anymore, the pleasure building so strongly inside of her that it made her want to cry.

That was the moment that Rio chose to pull out and she let out a shocked whimper. She would kill him if he denied her _that_ orgasm. But he quickly straightened her and shoved her against the wall where he grabbed her thighs to lift her before he slipped back inside of her and she emitted a satisfied mewl. She grabbed his shoulder to keep her balance and he buried his face in her neck, giving up on their eye-contact to let her, and probably himself too, the freedom to close her eyes and surrender. His cock was slowly moving, deeply buried inside of her and as soon as she adjusted to the change in his rhythm she couldn't stop letting out small, broken moans, until she came when he gently bit her earlobe. She wrapped her arms and legs around his body, clenching around him as she rode the rolling wave of her orgasm, and she felt him going rigid, pushing deep inside of her and breathing loudly in her ear as he instantly came in reaction. They stayed still, panting, for half a minute before he slowly pulled out from her and gently lift her down with shaky arms.

He handed her a tissue from the dispenser, and she realized that she'd apparently unrolled plenty while she was riding her ecstasy. She roughly cleaned up before she went for her purse, wondering how long they'd stayed there and if Dean had noticed anything. She was about to rush for the door when Rio's hand clasped on hers, tugging her to him until her breasts were pressed against his chest. He was looking at her with something in his eyes that she'd never seen before, something which was telling her that she'd been wrong to worry about being just another girl on his list. He angled her mouth, and she knew that he was going to kiss her, and she wanted him to, but she'd left her lipstick at home, and even drunk as he was, a ruined makeup was something that Dean would notice. But she hadn't have had enough of Rio yet. She wanted to kiss him, to undress him, to feel his hands all over her naked body. What had just happened was not even close to fill her want and need of him, it barely had satisfied her lust, if anything it had kicked Dean and his cookie cutter obsession out of her system. But now she wanted more. So she slightly tilted her head in the last moment of his move, making his lips slide against her cheek to end in her neck, and she whispered in his ear, "My place. Thirty minutes."

Dean was trying to decipher the bill with the torch mode of his phone when she came back, and she looked at him with commiseration, almost moved from the sight. It wasn't his fault after all if they were that different, if he'd never been able to fathom _that_ about her. She restlessly seated in the car during the drive back, impatiently squirming at the idea of what was expecting her at home, and nervously pulling her dress down on her thighs, wondering if Dean could notice that she wasn't wearing any underwear, since she'd forgotten to put it back on when she'd left the bathroom. She would be perfectly on time, she thought, thirty minutes was a short notice, but the drive wasn't that long. As it turned out, Dean managed to ruin even that when he insisted for stopping at the drugstore. Now she would be late, and who knew how long Rio would wait for her. If he even came at all. Maybe she was fooling herself again and she'd never hear about him now that he'd gotten what he wanted from her. But that look in his eyes after, it couldn't be a lie, could it be?

If she wanted to find out, she had to get rid of Dean's unwelcome presence first, so when he pulled over in her alley, she took a deep breath and forced a gentle smile on her lips.

"Thank you for the nice evening," she said.

"Do you want to... I mean..." Dean started, and she knew that this would be the delicate part.

She pulled on a pouty, sorry face, "I think I've had too much to drink, I'm a little dizzy... Maybe some other time?"

Dean winced with the exact same disappointed expression Kenny had whenever the Christmas gift he'd just unwrapped wasn't the one he had expected.

"I could take care of you," he offered, still trying to get invited to enter the house with her.

"No, I'm good, I'm just..." she started when Dean suddenly put a hand on her lap, startling her.

"I had a lot of fun with you tonight," he confidently told her, and she saw in his eyes the moment he decided that making a move would be a good idea.

He leaned over her and she panicked, shoving him back to his seat and removing his hand from her lap with a disgusted wince, before she opened the door.

"This is not happening, Dean!"

He angrily looked at her and she closed the car door, dismissing him, before she rushed to her front porch, unwilling to let him any space to insist. Once she got inside, she leant on the closed door, panting and waiting for the sound of the engine that would tell her that he'd left. Well, that was new. She hadn't anticipated this. A few nice smiles over a dinner, and he took for granted that he was back in her pants? What a jerk, she thought. And okay, she had _considered_ the idea, but she'd never had promised him anything, hadn't even mentioned it out loud. She'd have to be careful though, make it clear that this was off the table, for good this time. She wouldn't fool herself anymore in trying to save her marriage. She was worth better than that. Slowly coming back to her senses after her panicky moment, she noticed that the house was silent and plunged in the dark, and she realized that the drugstore stop and Dean's making out attempt had made her more than late to the rendezvous she had herself scheduled. 

She didn't turn the lights on as she walked to the kitchen. Her feet knew the way too well, and she liked the quietness of the dim light from the streetlamps, filling her living-room with shadows. That was when she saw it, quietly resting on the kitchen counter, the reflected light shining on the golden metal. She sighed in relief, and maybe also in anticipation, a smile on her face. She stayed still and waited, knowing that he was there, somewhere, probably already watching her. She didn't hear him but she suddenly felt his presence in her back, the warmth emanating from him as he placed his hands — that she immediately covered with hers — at her hips, while his lips tenderly slid in her neck, drawing small whines out of her.

She let him keep his ministrations for a while, but eventually she reluctantly pulled away from this intoxicating contact to pivot in his arms and face him, barely distinguishing the familiar features of his face in the darkness.

"So can I kiss you now or you got another phone call to make?" he drawled with irony.

"Oh, just shut up!" she said, grabbing the collar of his shirt with her both hands and pulling him closer.

And this time she couldn't tell who initiated the kiss. It started tender, with timid tongues and playful lips but soon it became filthy, demanding, their tongues furiously fighting in a battle the loser of which would be the first to lose control. He slipped his hands under the fabric of her dress to squeeze her bare ass cheeks and she gasped, clinging to him in response with her arms around his neck. She felt his fingers twitch in her flesh, and she didn't pay attention at first but he insisted until she got the hint and pushed against the ground. He lifted her and she wrapped her thighs around his waist, her lips still on his, his arms holding her tight against him and steadying her. He gave her a few more seconds to grab his shoulder for balance before he carried her inside the bedroom, kicking the door closed with one foot, and pressing her hard against the wall. Beth loudly moaned. If holding her against walls was his thing, she was not going to complain about it, she _loved_ the feeling of his body pressed against hers while she didn't touch the ground anymore. Dean had tried to do this a few times, but his arms were often shaking with a lack of strength, leaving her in the stressful worry that he would suddenly let her go crashing on the floor, which had always ruined her arousal. But Rio's arms were steady and reassuring, and she didn't even notice at first that he only had one arm left under her thighs to hold her when he started to unbutton her dress with one hand.

He only worked the first few buttons, though, until he could push the cups of her bra aside and avidly palm her breast while he pressed open mouth kisses on her chest. Beth couldn't stop moaning at this point, and she slipped her hands under his chin to frantically start to unbutton his shirt, unable to hold her desire for his skin one more second. She'd been dreaming to have him naked against her since the night they had spend in the motel. He lowly groaned in response, his mouth still sucking and gently biting her breast, and he slowly brought her back to the ground to put some space between them, easing their respective undressing tasks. 

She shoved his shirt off his shoulder and he parted the sides of her dress before he fell on his knees and started to kiss her inner thigh. Beth repressed a surprised gasp. Dean had never _willingly_ gone down there, she always had had to insist for it on the few times it had happened in the past. And even if she had absolutely no doubts about the fact that Rio's mouth would send her straight to heaven, it wasn't what she craved right now, she wanted to touch him, to hold him, to move on top of him, so she cupped the back of his head with her palms and pulled him up.

"Later," she explained in a stammering breath to his interrogative look, anxiously praying that she hadn't just ruined everything with that.

But apparently she didn't, since he deeply kissed her when he came back on his feet before they finished to undress each other and collapsed on the bed. There was a brief and tender struggle to decide who would be on top at first but it seemed that he let her win, and when she slowly sank down on him, bracing herself on his chest, she couldn't repress a loud moan that sounded like his name.

She didn't count how many times they had sex that night, but when she eventually fell asleep, one arm splayed across his chest, the shy lights of dawn were hitting the windows. She woke up in broad daylight though, slightly hangovered, and the first thing she noticed was that Rio was gone. Maybe it was better this way, she thought. She wasn't ready yet for the awkwardness of a next morning conversation with him. She couldn't repress a groan when she got up, realizing that her whole body was sore from the night, and she headed straight to the shower.

She glanced at the bed with a blush as she came back. She'd definitely have to change those sheets. As she watched the bed, flashbacks of the night popped in her mind and she shivered, butterflies scattering in her belly at the memories of words exchanged, moves, glances. The way his voice had broken the first time he'd come. The way _she_'d come when he had whispered "You drivin' me crazy, Elizabeth," in her ear. The look of awe in his eyes when he'd palmed her breasts while she was riding him. The way their fingers were intertwined as they had both climaxed, him on top of her. The caress of his fingertips as he would tenderly map the lines of her face during breathers. 

She leant against the wall, overwhelmed, and her eyes fell on the nightstand. She frowned at the sight of the folded paper sheet she hadn't noticed when she'd woken up. She grabbed it and her heart raced when she spotted the key taped to the paper, that key he'd hidden on her when they were at the drug dealer house. Above the key, with a handwriting that clearly suggested that the person had theoretically heard about the concept of alphabet but never actually seen one, three words were written.

_For my muse_

Beth smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, I know that I borrowed a lot of elements from S2E04 here, but it's just... I'm still not over the bathroom break. It's so perfect that I just can't compete, I can't imagine a better first hook-up for them! 🥰🥰🥰
> 
> But clearly they deserved more than just a quickie against a dirty wall so obviously I had to give them the whole night! 🔥🔥


	7. Partners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand, back to an AU where "No more cash, no more pills" never happened, because _WHY, Elizabeth???_ 😭😭😭

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it's been so long since my last update!!!!
> 
> TW: Some (kinda?) minor violence at the beginning of this chapter... Sorta.

Dean poured himself another glass of orange juice. He and Beth were sitting at the kitchen wooden table, enjoying the pale sunshine of a wintery morning filtering through the windows. He carefully peered at Beth's face.

"So is it over, then?" he finally asked.

She nodded as she dully said, "I'm filing for divorce."

"You know that it's not what I mean," he replied with a hint of threat in his voice.

"Oh _that_? Yeah. I ended it," Beth said with a eerie voice, staring right in front of her.

"What did he say?"

"Nothing. He wasn't there. I just handed the cash to one of the boys."

"Oh. Isn't it, like, rude?" he asked popping an eyebrow.

"To be honest I prefer it that way. I don't like it when he's angry," Beth replied with that same monotone voice.

She slowly rolled up her sleeve, revealing the purple bruise adorning her forearm.

Dean suffocated, "Did he...?"

She nodded, pursing her lips.

"Wow."

Dean looked away and he seemed to consider the situation for a while before he asked, "Did you give all the cash back?"

Beth pouted, "Almost?"

"Isn't that dangerous?"

She shrugged, "He won't risk it all over a few grand. Plus it's not like he needs them, while I do," she added with a little tired smile.

"I'm proud of you, Bethie," he said with a patronizing smile and she politely smiled back at him.

They stared at each other for a while until her smile suddenly vanished, her eyes focusing somewhere behind Dean. He turned his head to follow her gaze and he gasped in surprise when he spotted Rio striding across the backyard. They both stood up. Rio's face was wearing a dark expression and Beth's chin started to shake when he joined them.

"What are you—" she started, trying to keep her composure.

He didn't let her finish. He slapped her back and forth, strong enough to make her bottom lip bleed and her eyes widened in fear, "Please don't hurt me!" she hissed.

He came in her back and roughly grabbed her hair with one hand, forcing her head backward and pressing the head of his gun under her jaw, "You think you can rob me behind my back, huh?"

"I just thought... Please, please, please don't hurt us..." she begged with small whines as he cocked the gun.

There was a deafening second of silence. Dean seemed to be hypnotized with what was happening in front of him, unable to move, his mouth wide open. Rio chewed his bottom lip, seemingly weighing the situation.

"You ain't even worth the fuckin' bullet!" he eventually said with a disgusted wince as he brutally pushed her aside.

Beth lost her balance and her shoulder met the floor with a thud, the impact chasing the air from her lungs. She let out panicked hoarse gasps as Rio slowly walked towards her and crouched until he was close enough to touch her face with his hand.

"You thought you was smarter than me, huh?" he asked, almost gentle, his fingers trailing their way along a cheek already wet with tears.

Something slightly changed in his expression as he locked eyes with her, oh almost nothing, a subtle twitch of his eyebrow maybe, and she surely wouldn't have noticed it if she wasn't waiting for it.

_Ready for the big show?_

She blinked.

His gaze followed the line of her body and so did his clenched fist, having her emitting terrified little squeaks.

"Well, it's too bad sweetheart, cuz guess what, you ain't!"

Her body stiffened as she contracted her muscles the strongest she could, maybe half a second before he punched her in the stomach, drawing a hoarse hiss out of her. To be fairly honest it hurt a bit, but it was nothing compared to the damage it would have done if he'd hit her unprepared. She screamed as if he had, though, wriggling under much more pain than she was actually experiencing.

As Rio was getting back on his feet, Dean suddenly came back to his senses and rushed at him, "You sick bastard..."

He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence, and even less at hitting Rio since the latter's fist met Dean's jaw in a reflexive move that sent Dean crashing against the opposite wall. Rio lips curved into a ferocious smile. He gave a look at Beth still lying on the floor, shaking and softly crying, and then Dean who was moaning against the wall, and he let out a psychotic laughter. He suddenly grabbed the corner of a crockery cabinet and smashed it on the floor with its whole content.

Beth sharply screamed and he gave her a threatening look, "Now we good," he said.

As he walked away, he suddenly froze in the backyard door frame and slowly turned his head back, "And never ever try to mess up with me and my boys again, yeah? Cuz I'll be real mean next time. You guys got kids, right?"

An instant later he was gone. Beth didn't move for the next two minutes before she shakily tried to get back on her feet.

"Dean? Are you okay?" she asked with a trembling voice.

"I guess," he said, straightening with a groan, rubbing his jaw where a purple, swollen bruise was already forming, "Beth, we have to go to the police!"

"No, Dean, we can't! And you heard him. It's over. He won't bother us anymore," she replied, her chest panting.

They both took a few minutes to calm down and recover from the aggression.

"What is it that you were saying about not risking it all over a few grand?" Dean teased with a dubious sense of apropos.

Beth shook her head with wide apologetic eyes, "I just... I didn't think he would—"

"I'm sorry, come here, sweetie."

She put on a whole crying and whining show as she let Dean hug her, until she abruptly broke from his embrace, "Oh my God, it's almost nine! You should already be on your way to the dealership!"

"I can't leave you in such a state, Bethie. You should go to see a doctor, you know?"

She wiped her eyes in an annoyed motion, "No, no, it's okay, I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. It's gonna be okay, I promise," she added with her best comforting smile.

He surrendered with a shrug, "Okay, then. Do you want me to bring the kids tonight?"

"That would be perfect. Thank you."

She waited until she'd heard Dean's car leaving the alley to enter the bathroom and inspect the damages on her face. She cleaned the blood from her lip, and when she got finished, she addressed a devilishly satisfied smile to her own reflection.

* * *

** Four Months Before **

* * *

_For my muse_

Beth smiled. An instant later she grabbed her phone, and he picked up almost immediately.

"Yeah? Found your key to the kingdom?"

"What does it mean?"

"It means that we're partners now."

Her eyes widened in astonishment, "Because we slept together."

He chuckled, "Nah... Cause you moved cars."

She sighed. Well. That at least made sense. She could have spent the whole day wrapped in the velvet of his voice over the phone but reality caught up with her when he added, "Gotta go. You got anythin' else you wanted to tell me?"

She closed her eyes. God, there was so much she wanted to say, or ask, and yet...

"No," she almost whispered.

"Al'ight."

He hung up and she slowly sat down on the bed with a deep exhale. _What now?_ she thought. That night had been... well, she wasn't sure that she could put words on it, it would have narrowed the whole thing down, but she didn't know where that left them nor what his intentions were from now on. God, she didn't even know what _she_ wanted, so... She forced herself not to think about it too much, but as she kept going through her day, flashbacks of the night kept popping in her mind, leaving her with nothing but embarrassment and a beginning arousal. Dean tried to call but she decidedly ignored him. She didn't want to talk to him, not while her bed was still undone and smelled like _him_.

She didn't see nor hear from Rio until her next cash drop, about a week later. Apparently, this whole key and partnership thing wasn't supposed to bring immediate changes in the course of their interactions. Hence the prospect of seeing him thrilled her as much as it made her nervous. She hadn't told the girls about their _night_ — she still couldn't think about it without feeling those butterflies again — or the partnership, whatever that meant.

The way he just looked at her during the whole meeting stole her breath. In a general way, they had always had a tendency to eye each other maybe a little too much, oblivious of anyone around, but they definitely had reached a whole new level since their night together. She simply forgot about Annie and Ruby's presence by her side the instant she met his gaze, and, well, he didn't seem to pay at all attention to his own side-kicks. She handed him the bag of cash, and his hand clasped around hers before slowly sliding to the handle, his eyes still locked with hers and staring at her in a way clearly suggesting that in his mind she was already naked. She swallowed, repressing her gasp at his contact and shivering at the memory of his hands on her. If it weren't for the four people around them, she'd already have jumped at him. His gaze was so full of promises that she sucked in a frustrated moan. She couldn't. Not that night. She had the kids at home, plus she had promised the girls that they would hang out after the drop. And she wouldn't survive the embarrassment of telling them to go, that she'd join later. That would have been too obvious, and she... didn't want them to find out. Not yet at least.

On the drive back, she thought that she'd been stupid to think that sleeping with Rio would dissipate the tension between them. If anything, it had raised its intensity. The good news was that apparently the girls didn't notice anything. She felt a little bit guilty for not telling them anything, and keeping her mouth shut while she was the one with juicy things to tell for once was kind of frustrating, but she wasn't ready. He texted her, later in the evening, asking her to join him at a meeting with a supplier on the next day. As his _partner_.

She was nervous, when she parked her car next to his, and not only because of the prospect of seeing him again. The idea of going to a business meeting as a fully crime-committed boss-to-be, it scared her. Despite her acting skills, she highly doubted that any hardened criminal would buy that she was a part of it for real. Rio probably sensed her anxiety, because she saw him raise a hand at her, with an obvious reassuring pat-on-the-shoulder intention, before he seemed to change his mind. Maybe he was afraid to touch her, afraid that things escalate out of control from there. Or maybe he just wasn't interested anymore.

"You'll do great," he simply said with a warm look.

And as he said, the meeting went okay. To be honest, she mostly witnessed Rio's negotiating techniques although she did get to say a few words, but it turned out to be a more complicated task than expected since Rio's proximity filled her mind with the filthiest thoughts and flashbacks from their night together, making it harder for her to focus on anything else. And the burning glances he cast at her once in a while didn't exactly help either.

By the time they were walking back to the cars, she could feel the pulsing throbbing between her legs and her urge to touch him was almost painful. He didn't show the slightest amount of interest for her as he headed to his car though, and she thought that she'd regret it if she didn't ask. But ask what?

"Rio..." she started, hating the weakness in her voice.

He stopped dead and turned around to face her. She'd been following him closely and hadn't anticipated his move, so she bumped into his chest and he reflexively placed a hand in her lower back, preventing her from losing her balance. She gasped under his touch, and she saw his pupils blow, reflecting her own, obvious desire.

"Fuck, Elizabeth, I thought you'd never ask," he whispered with a smirk before he leant over her to kiss her.

She grabbed his shoulder and the back of his neck, forcefully kissing him back, and she moaned when she felt his tongue meeting with her lips. With a groan, he left her mouth to build a trail of kisses along her jaw and in her neck, and she pressed herself harder against him with small, demanding noises, until he shoved her against the side of the car to firmly grind into her with his hips.

She felt him hardening against her thigh through his jeans, and suddenly the need to feel him move inside of her overwhelmed her.

"Open the car," she ordered, more bossily than she intended to, but judging from the look he gave her as he straightened, he couldn't have been more pleased nor turned on by this.

They crashed on the backseat in a frantic mess of hands and mouths searching for bare skin to stroke and kiss, their loud breathes and moans filling the limited space, and she didn't even _think_ about the last time she'd had sex at the backseat of a car, not to mention who she'd had it with.

It didn't last for as long as she wished it did, though, they were both too turned on and hungry for each other to slow things down even the slightest bit. She wanted more, and she was about to offer him to continue this at her place when he anticipated her thought.

"I wish I could stay the whole night with you, sweetheart, but I gotta go. Duty calls," he said with a pretentious wave of his hand, "So... Fuck you next time?" he asked with a mischievous look.

She smiled back, "Fuck you."

And after that night and its clear acknowledgment of their mutual desire, they kept having sex, more or less regularly, mostly over meetings or deliveries. She didn't ask the girls to escort her to cash drops anymore, and he apparently did the same with his boys, so they would always, fairly conveniently, meet alone. They usually fucked on the backseat of his car, which as time went by even reconciled her with the smell of fresh leather. At some point though, Rio decided to trade parks for hotel rooms as future meeting places. Car sex was fun, but, well, comfortable beds with ensuite bathrooms had their advantages too, and they had long ago passed the hypocritical point where they were still pretending that sex was an externality of a cash drop instead of the other way around. But as Beth kept telling herself, it was just sex, nothing more. And not the kind designed to last. Obviously.

But then, things slightly altered. Tiny little events telling the stuff they refused to admit. Like this one time when he told her after a drop that he had a busy schedule and couldn't stay the extra hour this time. He kissed her, as an apology, and well, she was disappointed of course, but also it was the first time that they kissed outside of a sex-driven intent. It sort of became a habit after that. He would often kiss her to say hi, or sorry, or bye. But, well, it was still _just sex_, wasn't it? Maybe a glimpse of fluff had made its way through it, but it didn't _mean_ anything, right? It had taken Beth months to admit to herself that she was attracted to Rio, she wasn't ready to wonder about her potential _feelings_ for him. That was, on top of everything, a _ridiculous_ idea!

But then they started to spend more and more time together outside of work-related occasions. He would sometimes come at her place, always hers, in the late evening, and spend the night. He was usually already gone when Beth would wake up, but he stayed for breakfast a couple of times, and these were moments of peaceful silence which they both spent sipping, coffee for her and tea for him, before they screwed again in her shower. Rio was comfortable with silence, he wasn't the kind of people who felt like they had to fill in the blanks, and she appreciated that aspect of him. 

They actually never talked. At all. Sometimes she thought that sex was their favorite and only communication channel. Like this one time after a delivery. She'd screwed up, that she admitted. They had to pay a supplier and she was the one in charge of filling the duffel bag, and somehow she had miscounted the cash, or got distracted — Kenny had a bad flu at the time and she'd been stressed out — but the thing was, one bankroll was missing. Rio had to add the balance out of his pocket. They argued about it on the drive back, although it wasn't a big deal since she'd pay him back as soon as she would be home, but he was mad at her for making such a gross, amateur mistake. And as they were both heating up with anger, at some point he pulled over in a forest track and entangled his hand in her hair to harshly kiss her. She kissed him back with the same energy, and the next minute they were angrily fucking on the backseat. His thrusts were rough, punishing, his bites meaner than the usual, and she dug her nails deep into the skin of his back until he bled. She came twice, in a loud and sharp scream, and it seemed afterwards that the pleasure had washed their anger away. He softly kissed and stroked her face for a while before driving her back home, and when he pulled over in her alley, waiting for her to leave his car, she looked at him with pleading eyes.

"Stay," she dully said.

"Okay."

She was starting to miss him when he didn't spend the night with her. Impatiently waiting for him when he was supposed to come over. Maybe a little too impatient on second thought. But like, it didn't mean that there was any kind of _feelings_ involved there, right? As she was expecting him one night, he texted her that something had come up at work, so he wouldn't be able to make it this time and they'd have to reschedule. The extent of her disappointment surprised even herself. She went to bed alone and eventually fell asleep, but at some point in the middle of the night she woke up to discover that he was curled up against her and she couldn't help but smile. She shifted in his arms and softly kissed his jaw and that probably woke him up because his palms stroked her breasts for a while as a response before he firmly squeezed her hips, and a few minutes later he was fucking her in the mattress, softly at first, but then hard, with something needy in the way his hands convulsively clasped around her breasts. She didn't ask what went wrong at work, but she saw the bruises on his face and the scratches on his knuckles in the morning. 

And then they came to a point where sex wasn't the only centre of their interactions anymore. He had taken the habit of showing up unannounced sometimes, and well, that explained why this one time he found her crying. She wasn't even sure of why she cried. Sometimes she had these outbursts of incommensurable sadness. It was probably something hormonal, PMS, anxiety or whatever. And there was also that _thing_ going on with Dean. Anyway, the point was that she was in bed one evening, softly sniffling with swollen eyes, thinking about her many insecurities in life and feeling like a massive failure. He didn't say a word. He just sat by her side, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she nested her head in the crook of his neck. This was the kind of demonstration of affection they'd normally only show in a post-sex haze, they didn't _cuddle_, that wasn't their thing, God no! But this time he rocked her until her sobs faded out, replaced by a nervous and embarrassed laughter at the whole situation, which made her feel like she was acting ridiculous.

"Better?" he asked.

She nodded and they both eventually fell asleep. It was the first time that they spent the night together without having sex. Well, not until morning at least, when they extensively caught up with lost time. And it was a good thing that he never asked her why she was crying, since she didn't really know herself, but she had for sure been stressed out lately. Mainly because of Dean.

It all had started surprisingly good, though. With Rio's money flowing through, the dealership had found its former glory back, and Dean had quickly forgotten who was behind the cash. Or so he pretended. Beth had given him the cold treatment for a few days after the night he'd tried to kiss her, still mad at him for the way he'd dismissed her ideas over their dinner. Plus she also wanted to make it clear that any kind of intimacy between them was from now on off the table. For good.

He didn't seem to get that last hint, though. Over the next few weeks, there were a few more attempts following his tentative make-out in the car, polite and civilized at first, but then... Not so much. Not that he forced her into anything, things didn't get _that_ bad, but he kept acting like he was entitled to have her, putting the state of their marriage on her, blaming and shaming her for her rejection of him. And it took her a while to understand what was going on there, until it suddenly got clear the day he started taking krav-maga classes. He was jealous. Somehow, he had sensed that her connection to Rio had reached a deeper level, and at this point Annie would probably have inserted a gross comment about the _depth_ of the aforementioned connection if she knew about it, but she didn't. Nobody did. But Dean seemed to have figured it out on his own, which Beth had to admit was surprisingly clever from him. Too bad that it happened when she could have used his dumbness for once.

But it didn't alarm her at first, after all she knew he cheated on her, he knew she cheated on him, and so what? Couldn't they both get back to their respective affairs and be happy? She wished. Knowing that his soon to be ex-wife was screwing a younger gangbanger with a stratospheric level of hotness seemed to somehow hit a fragile spot in Dean's conception of masculinity, and as she saw his fury grow bigger, his attempts at getting back in her bed became more desperate. He cut the dealership deal, for a reason that Beth still couldn't explain, because if he thought that doing so would push Rio away from her life, then he was even stupider than she'd thought. She assumed that he was so pissed that even the idea of working with Rio's money was insufferable, although it was probably his lamest move ever, since as a consequence she had to work on her side even more closely with Rio to cover the loss of incomes at the dealership.

She thought that she could handle her angry future ex-husband by herself, though, so she didn't tell Rio about this. Sharing private confidences wasn't something they did, to begin with, plus he was already so cocky, she wouldn't give him that additional opportunity to brag about himself. But then Dean reached a critical point one night. Apparently, he'd found appropriate to rummage through her personal stuff, which was already problematic, in addition to be fairly scary.

"What does that mean, is that him? Is that a joke?" he angrily asked before she could say anything.

He threw a small box at her with a heinous look on his face, and she frowned at first, before she recognized it. Rio's fake engagement ring. She had almost forgotten about it, but she did remember keeping it in her panties drawer.

"Could you please tell me why you searched into my underwear?" she icily asked, her eyes widened in shock.

"I asked you a question!" he shouted back.

"Don't yell at me!"

He grabbed her wrist with a hard grip, pulling her closer, and she saw something murderous in his eyes, something that scared her.

"You're still my wife, Beth," he reminded her in a hiss, and she could smell the alcohol in his breath.

She angrily withdrew her wrist from his hand, "Yeah, I was thinking about fixing that soon."

He chuckled, "Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you!"

His confidence raised a red flag in her mind and she crossed her arms on her chest, trying to exude a self-confidence that she felt quickly withdrawing from her, "What are you talking about?"

"That depends on you," he hissed with narrowed eyes, "How many birthdays do you want to miss because you're too busy serving your sentence, Bethie?"

She stopped breathing, "You... You wouldn't."

"Then don't make me," he shrugged.

This _had to_ be the booze talking. At least she hoped so.

"What is it exactly that you want?" she tried to soften.

Dean pursed his lips, "I want you to stop seeing him."

"Like you stopped seeing Amber and all the others?" she snorted.

"That was different. I'm not a criminal, Beth!"

"We need the money!" she protested, astonished, "I can't afford to give up on this job!"

He shook his head, "I don't care. I want him out."

"Well, you can't always get what you want," she told him in a last reasoning attempt.

"Yeah? We'll see about that," he slowly walked to the front door, and as he was about to leave the house he turned his head at her, "I'm doing this for us, you know? For the kids."

She snorted at him, keeping her chin raised in a defying posture although she felt like she was drowning inside. And she'd never thought that he would actually have the balls to do that, but three days later, she found his note on the fridge in a desperately empty house. He'd taken the kids away and her exit ticket from this nightmare wore a three-letters name.

She gave it a few days of thinking. This would never stop if she started to give in. Dean could endlessly pressure her into whatever he wanted, and she didn't want to think about where it could lead her. Especially — she remembered with a shiver — with his recent attempts at having sex with her again. If she gave up on Rio, she would lose the money, she would be helpless facing Dean's demands. But if she didn't, then, what about the kids? What if Dean turned her in for real? She eventually called Rio one night, asking him to come over. She hadn't explicitly _asked_ for a meeting with him since the day she'd hung her pearls on his warehouse door knob, he was usually the one deciding to show up at her place. She gulped a few bourbons down, hoping it would shut up her nervousness.

"I need something from you," she said as soon as he entered the kitchen, "It's for a... cover. Sort of."

"Yeah? And why would I do that?" he amusedly replied.

She sighed. She'd known he would be an asshole on this — unfortunately, sleeping with him didn't seem to have impacted his general dickishness — but she was running short of options, so she swallowed her annoyance.

She shrugged, "Partners always have each other's back, right?"

He nodded, admitting her fair point, "Al'ight, what you need me for?"

She had to gulp down two more bourbons in a row to finally find the courage to ask, "I want you to hurt me. Badly."

"Didn't know you were into that kind of role play!" he teased.

"It's not like that," she seriously replied.

And then she explained it all to him. How Dean was becoming more and more suspicious. How he was pressing her into stopping her criminal activities, stopping to see him. How he'd taken the kids away and started to threaten her to sue her. How she came to the conclusion that she was left with only two options, ending things with Rio for real, or just pretending she did.

"I need him to think that we're over for good," she concluded with a shaky voice, eyes locked with him, "And he won't buy it unless you really scare me."

"You want me to hit you in front of him?" he incredulously asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Might be a good start," she softly replied, quite unable to hide her anxiety though, knowing that she'd have to blindly trust him on this.

He seemed to process her answer for a few seconds before he licked his lips, teasing, "You sure you don't want me to fuck you in front of him instead?"

She cleared her throat with an annoyed wave of her head, "Which part of _'I need him to think we're over'_ didn't you get?"

He swallowed, "You know we can fake a lotta stuff, right? I don't need to punch you for real."

"He's doing krav-maga! I'm sure he can tell if it's fake."

"Okay but—"

She raised a hand, unwilling to hear his protest. This was already hard enough. Did he think that she hadn't given this whole thing proper _thoughts_ before asking him to come over?

"I can't afford that he suspects anything, this is the only shot I've got, Rio. You don't understand, he _took my kids_..."

Her voice broke at the thought of the three, awful days she'd just spent in her empty house, and when she glanced back at Rio, she could tell that the anger flickering in his eyes wasn't aiming at her.

She cleared her throat, "So, can you do that for me or not?"

"When?" he asked in a low voice.

"Is Monday morning okay for you? I can ask him to come over, I'll find something."

Right. Because an invitation for breakfast was her safest option. She winced at her own weakness. How far must she had gone to be so scared of Dean, of someone for whom she only felt a mix of contempt and pity until recently? 

Rio silently nodded and before she knew it he was standing in front of her, cupping her jaw with his hand and staring deeply in her eyes with a soft expression on his face. He angled her mouth but she didn't give him a chance to kiss her yet.

"There is more," she said.

He tilted his head with a dark, and also quite annoyed expression, waiting.

"Can you... leave some marks on me now, so he'll think you're hitting me? I bruise easily so it shouldn't be a problem..." she said while rolling up her sleeve.

Rio was looking at her with a truly shocked expression which clearly questioned her sanity as she handed him her wrist.

"Come on!" she insisted.

"You... sure 'bout that?"

She nodded, and he slightly shrugged, "If you insist so much..."

He winced before he clasped his hand around her forearm. At first she only felt the soft warmth of his skin, but then he started to tighten his grip and the pressure went from pleasant to uncomfortable, and then to painful, until she let out a sharp little noise of pain. Eyes locked with hers, his jaw clenched as he pressed a little bit harder, his hand slightly rotating around her limb before he loosened his grip. The pressure instantly vanished and she looked down on her skin, where Rio's fingers had printed red marks on her pale complexion. She rubbed her forearm with a wince.

"It'll bruise within a coupla hours," he whispered, "But I definitely like better my usual way of makin' you moan."

He came closer with a renewed seductive intent, but she turned him down a second time, "Can you give me a black-eye as well?" she asked, and God, what was wrong with her, something sounded almost _greedy_ in her voice!

She'd figured that based on their track record, Rio wouldn't mind hurting her, it wasn't like he'd never made her _choke_ before, but his obvious reluctance was somehow... exciting, like she had some power over him. Like he had _boundaries_. She kind of wanted to see how far she could go, be the one testing the other one's limits, for once.

He shook his head, "Nuh huh, I ain't doin' that."

"Come on!" she protested.

She closed her eyes and daringly raised her chin at him, waiting, although nothing happened for a while. She heard him move at some point, but then she only felt his lips, light as a feather, sliding over her eyelids, and she re-opened her eyes to confusedly stare at him through fluttering lashes.

"I won't do that to you, Elizabeth," he breathed, "but lemme show you summin' instead. Get on the floor."

"What?"

"C'mon," he waved with annoyance.

She let herself drop on the floor and he kneeled beside her, showing her how to anticipate a punch in the stomach and fake its effect. They discussed the highlights of what he was supposed to do to her, but she didn't want to plan every detail. The more he'd take her by surprise, the better, she thought. She didn't trust herself into looking scared _enough_ if she already knew what was coming.

"Anything but choking," she only added.

"Man, you still not over that yet?" he asked with a smirk, his fingers following the line of her hair along her face.

She raised a hand with a vague slapping intent but he caught her wrist and pressed her palm against his lips, softly biting and sucking her skin in, rubbing it with his tongue until she squirmed under the tickle. And, well, after that he took the opportunity of having her already lying on the floor beneath him to pin her wrists above her head and kiss her neck until her giggles turned into lascivious moans, and they barely made it to her bed before their bodies collided and let their mutual desire overwhelm them.

And so things happened the way she'd asked, and well, putting that behind her was a relief. She was still smiling at her reflection when she saw him in her background, leaning against the bathroom doorframe and staring at her through the mirror.

"So, he bought it?" he asked.

"I think so," she whispered.

She turned around to face him and slowly closed the distance between them until her chest was only inches away from his. She could feel his breath on her mouth, and he slowly raised a hand to push a lock of hair back behind her ear. The soft expression on his face was so contrasting with the hard mask he had on barely half an hour before that it made her want to cry. Maybe their fake violent scene had shaken her more than she thought it would, maybe the realism with which he had hit her and contemptuously talked to her had been scarier than she was willing to admit. Rio's fingertips stroked her cheek, his thumb softly running over her wounded lip, and her eyes tingled with building tears.

"Thank you," she breathed, letting her tears fall down and release her from the tension.

"I'm so sorry," he replied with a devastated look on his face.

He pulled her closer and buried his face in her neck, kissing her skin and mouthing _I'm sorry_'s in between, and she realized that he'd been shaken too. She clung to his neck, softly moaning under the caress of his lips, and soon he wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her away from the bathroom. As they walked past the bedroom door on their way to the bed, she caught a glimpse of Bullet and Demon cleaning the crockery mess in the kitchen and she froze.

"We shouldn't... I mean... Do they _know?_" she asked.

He chuckled, "Whatchu think? You think there's a chance they didn't notice that they no longer invited to funny money drops?" he thoughtfully said, smacking her ass.

She blushed intensely, "Well, maybe we should just, you know... wait... until they're done with the cleaning, and..."

"And after that they're bringin' new tableware, as a replacement. I upgraded your shit, by the way. You think you can hold on until then?" he asked with a teasing light in his eyes.

"Please, I'm not an animal!" she snorted with a roll of her eyes.

And well, she hadn't anticipated that _he_'d spend the whole waiting time teasing her, touching her just enough to arouse her without making her loudly lose control, playing with her body, really, so by the time she heard Bullet and Demon's car leave the alley she just jumped at Rio with an aching need. He kissed her back hungrily, with the same intensity, and her swollen lip started to bleed again but she didn't care. He pinned her against the wall with his body, grinding against her before he fucked her there, lifting her with his both arms. She screamed his name at each one of his possessive thrusts into her, braced against his shoulder while his mouth was leaving playful bites on her chest. They both came hard, the pleasure healing and conjuring their earlier violence.

They kissed deeply when she got back on her feet, unsteady on her legs, and she dragged him to the bed, both finishing to messily undress each other along the way, until they crashed on the mattress, lips jointed and hands mapping each other's body. And they couldn't stop until the arousal came back and he crawled on top of her to fuck her again. And then again.

It wasn't before several hours later that she was lying naked in the bed, absent-mindedly staring at his fingertips running up and down her arm.

"Did I scare you, earlier?" he asked.

She blinked. He'd scared the shit out of her but she'd rather die than admit it.

"A bit," she lightly replied with a shrug.

"I'm sorry 'bout your lip, wasn't supposed to bleed. I miscalculated," he apologized.

She raised her face, searching for his eyes, and she slightly shook her head.

"Oh, no, it's okay, I thought it was genius!" she told him with a widening smile which turned into a wince of pain when it started to stretch her wounded lip too much.

His eyes widened, "You know, sometimes I think you real crazy, Elizabeth!"

"Why should I complain? It all went exactly as we planned," she chuckled.

"Yeah... Just like we practiced, huh?" there was a silence before he lowly added, "You tough, ma."

Her heart jumped in her chest at the compliment, and she leant on her elbow to slightly raise her upper body and kiss him. He captured her lips between his for much longer than she expected and it took her a while to think straight again after he'd let her go, panting.

"It felt wrong you know? Hittin' you," he admitted.

She immediately took advantage of his contrition to tease him back, "Should I worry that it didn't feel right?"

"You know what I mean."

She lowered her eyes, "I know. I'm sorry I put you through this but I just—"

He cut her with a kiss.

"Don't be. Partners always have each other's back, right?"

She smiled.

"What about Dean? Did you plan to hit him as well?" she suddenly asked.

He chuckled, "Nah, that wasn't part of the script, I had to improvise. You mad at me if I say that I enjoyed it, though?"

She kissed him again as an answer, and then they... kind of got too busy to talk for a while.

Later, as she was resting by his side, one of his arms splayed across her chest, she randomly laid her eyes on her alarm-clock and suddenly caught up with time with a startle. She abruptly sat on the side of the bed and grabbed her robe while Rio was lazily straightening in her back.

"My kids will be home soon," she explained with a beginning frenzy, "I'm gonna take a shower, you should go," she added with apology in her eyes.

She was about to tell him that she wished he could stay instead but he raised a hand at her, "It's okay, sweetheart, I get it."

"Thanks," she muttered as she got up.

"Hey, Roberto's gal is gettin' married next month," he suddenly said as she was pulling the bathroom door, "Would you like to come? As my date?"

She turned around and gave him a beaming smile, "I would love to."

"Cool," he grinned back.

"So what d'you want us to be this time?" Rio asked her a few weeks later as she'd just climbed in his car, all smooth curves wrapped in a gorgeous salmon-colored dress.

"I'd have asked for a partnership way sooner if I knew that I would get to decide of our cover back-stories!" she replied with a perky smile, "Well... I'm your date at a _wedding_, so obviously we're back together, and—"

"Still engaged, as I can see?" Rio drawled in a low voice, his eyes fixed on the ring at her finger.

She blushed, "I can take it off if you think that it's—"

"Nah, I'm good," he grinned.

They stared at each other for a while, tension building around them until she cleared her throat with obvious embarrassment.

She shook her head, "So why don't we just... improvise from there?"

He slowly raised his hands in a surrendering fashion, "Your call, darlin'. I'm just followin' your lead today."

The wedding was taking place at Roberto's estate and it oddly warmed her up to see again the massive façade of the house and the garden, remembering how she'd purposely hurt her own hand to steal from Roberto's safe. Ah, wild times! Back then, when she was pretending to be Rio's girlfriend... Well, just to be clear, she still _was_ pretending that, but... it didn't feel that unnatural anymore, and a shiver ran along her spine when Rio's arm came to hold her waist as they joined the lawn where tents and seats had been settled for the ceremony.

"It's good to see the two of you back together," Roberto cheerfully rejoiced as soon as he managed to talk to them, which was almost instantly since Beth had witnessed him literally jumping out of the group of people he was talking to as if his pants were on fire the moment he saw them.

Beth's eye slightly widened. Didn't these people have lives of their own so they had to be so obsessed with hers? Were they _that_ bored? And if Roberto was _this_ pleased, then she could only but expect Anita to have already succumbed to a heart attack given the highly inappropriate level with which she seemed to endorse their fictional couple. Roberto looked like he had a million questions running through his head, but Beth was saved by the bell when one of the bridesmaid suddenly materialized to remind Roberto that his daughter was waiting for him to walk her down the aisle within a few minutes. He excused himself with a smile and disappeared while Beth and Rio got seated. Rio immediately started to playfully slip his hand under the skirt of her dress, and she soon lost track of the ceremony, which didn't really interest her anyway since she basically didn't know anyone there except the bride's parents. And, well, she needed all her attention to focus on _not_ moaning loudly under Rio's fingers in the middle of the best man's speech, right?

Saying that Anita was thrilled would have been an understatement. She was completely out of control when she came by to congratulate them after the ceremony was over. She even seemed more excited by their supposed reconciliation than her own daughter's wedding, which last fact Beth found highly disturbing. And quite over the top, to be honest.

"I'm so glad that the two of you finally patched things up! How did he make amends?" she asked Beth.

"Oh you know, he hit me hard until I said yes!" Beth laughed with a knowing glance at Rio who winced, "I'm just kidding of course, he devotedly helped me with a complicated... family situation, so I decided to give him a second chance. About that," she added, pressing Anita's forearm with one hand, "Thank you _so much_ for your advice about infidelity forgiveness, that was really... useful."

Maybe she would still be sticking to her idea of not cheating on Dean if she hadn't decided to follow Anita's advice and went through that disastrous dinner with him.

Anita was jumping around like an over-excited little girl who'd have eaten too much sugar, "Wonderful! And you're still engaged!" she added, lowering her gaze on Beth's ring.

"Well, we decided to resume things where we had stopped, so he presented me with a new trip to Niagara Falls, isn't it the sweetest? And then the magic came back, you know, it felt as if we had never been broken up in the first place! A little bird even happened to land on my shoulder when he re-proposed, can you believe it?" Beth ecstatically said, delighted to finally be able to drop her little bird anecdote in the conversation.

She could tell that Rio was having a hard time at keeping a serious face, and he hid his emergent laughter in her neck, pretending to be overwhelmed with this memory.

"It was beautiful. I'm so glad you gave me another chance, sweet love!" he said, his muffled voice broken with fake emotion.

His breath was tickling the skin of her neck, and she fought hard to repress her own hilarity. The idea of such an emotional version of Rio _was_ hilarious, come on.

Anita was almost crying at this point.

"I'm so happy for you, guys!" she said with a trembling voice, and Beth thought that maybe Anita had watched too many rom-coms in her life, given her massive level of cheesiness, "Have you decided on a date yet?"

"Not really. We're taking things slow, actually," Beth replied with a polite smile.

Someone hailed Anita in her back and she excused herself to entertain her other guests. Beth turned to Rio with a beaming smile.

"Aren't we good at this?" she asked with juvenile excitement.

He ran his thumb on her cheek, his fingers stroking her neck, with an amazed expression in his eyes, "Nah, _you_ are good at this. I'm just followin' your lead, sweetheart."

"You realize that you have to take me to Niagara Falls at least once now, right?" she taunted him.

He smirked, teasing back, "You realize you already married someone else?"

"Insignificant detail, darling," she flirtatiously counter-attacked with a negligent wave of her hand, mostly because she didn't want to have to think about Dean and the pain in the ass he was making of himself with the divorce papers at the moment.

Rio raised an eyebrow, "Yeah?"

Something in the way he was looking at her stole her breath, and she had to gather all her self-control to leave this slippery slope and pull on a serious face.

"Yeah. About that... We're screwed, aren't we? I mean, Roberto and Anita are definitely expecting us to invite them to our fake wedding!"

"Didn't think 'bout that when you decided to put the ring back on, huh?"

She blushed. She indeed hadn't thought about this, she'd just wanted to wear the ring because... Because.

"Or we could just, you know, break up again!" she provocatively replied with a shrug.

"Oh you want that?" he drawled, bringing his face closer to hers until she couldn't resist to kiss him.

He kissed her back, and she thought that it was the first time that they were kissing in public _for real_. Obviously they had to play a couple's parts, but the way that they were kissing and touching wasn't only acting-driven anymore.

"Al'ight, time to congratulate the real lovebirds," Rio eventually said, wrapping a gentle arm around her waist.

She shivered at his contact, already turned on from his kiss, and oh right, maybe the fact that he'd spent the whole wedding ceremony with his fingers against her clit was also relevant regarding this matter.

"You know," she slowly said with a tempting look as they were crossing the lawn, "I remember that there's a bathroom upstairs. Everyone is using the one downstairs, I've checked, so..."

He stopped walking and raised an eyebrow at her, "So?"

She tiptoed until her lips were brushing his ear, "Meet me there in five," she exhaled.

She stepped back, mischievously meeting his eyes, and he smirked, "It's already too much of a wait, darlin'."

And the way he was looking at her it was just. So much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I guess this is the end? Mostly because I'm running short of con-games ideas and situations, but maybe I'll come back someday with a new idea (for the record it all started as a one-shot, so I wouldn't bet on my accuracy at planning things!)... So if you have anything in mind, just feel free to ask for it, because pretending-Brio is sooooo fun to write!
> 
> And thanks/kisses/hugs for all your kudos and nice comments, I always receive them as precious gifts!! ❤️😘🤗

**Author's Note:**

> Work title is from **Nightwhish**'s song of the same name.


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